Cait's TealogCait's tealog on Steepsterhttp://steepster.com/
Organic Pearl River from The Tea TableThis is the first green tea which I've tried from my tea of the month subscription to Tea Table. The label on my packet claims that this is "the perfect basic green tea" and, while I'm not sure that it's perfect, it is a very nice basic tea. It's surprisingly smooth for a green tea, even in the dregs when the taste becomes slightly bitter, and until those dregs the taste is very light and pleasing.
The <a href="http://www.theteatable.com/p/OPR">company's webpage for this tea</a> drops the "basic" from the description and makes this sound like a far more complicated tea than I experienced. Don't let that put you off.Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:04:45 -0500/teas/Organic%20Pearl%20River/993-organic-pearl-river?note=25122
Black Tea with Vanilla from Fortnum & MasonThis is an amazingly smooth black tea: it has no bitter taste or aftertaste at all, and with one lump of sugar is sweet without being heavy. Even when I accidentally oversteep -- for example, I left the leaves in for almost a quarter of an hour this morning from a combination of natural forgetfulness and pre-caffeination -- this tea does not retaliate. It's an excellent first cup of tea for the day.
The website for this tea -- or what I presume is this tea, as I have an older gift tin in a decidedly different color scheme -- informs me that I may have to order this tea directly from London once I finish this tin, which is sad news indeed for an American.Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:13:58 -0500/teas/Black%20Tea%20with%20Vanilla/8771-black-tea-with-vanilla?note=25124
Holiday Dream from The Tea TableThis is a sweet and very tasty black tea. With no sugar, there's a faint bite of black tea bitter to balance the sweetness; with one lump, it's more of a decadent experience. This is a very smooth tea, but it's a little more complicated in its flavors than I usually choose first thing in the morning. It makes a great mid-morning treat.
The Tea Table calls this a "holiday" tea, but hastens to assure that it's "delicious any time of year", which I find amusing. This tastes very much like a mid-winter tea to me. This is also from my tea-of-the-month subscription and I don't think it'll last me through the month, let alone through the winter, at the rate I keep drinking it!Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:18:38 -0500/teas/Holiday%20Dream/8772-holiday-dream?note=25126
Rooibos Tropica from TeavanaThis is an incredibly sweet tea that just knocks you over with fruit. (I'm not surprised that it's very often one of the sample teas that Teavana sets out in its stores.) If you're really sure that you want a sweet, sweet tea, this one is absolutely worth the trouble of picking those little fragments of rooibos leaf out of your tea strainer.Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:27:14 -0500/teas/Rooibos%20Tropica/2336-rooibos-tropica?note=25127
Peppermint from Celestial SeasoningsThis is the comfort tea that I want when it is the middle of the night and I just don't feel good. I want to put on a robe and slippers and stumble into the kitchen to light up the burner under the kettle so that I can sit in the dark watching the gas light while the water boils. I want to add a generous spoonful of honey and take my mug of tea (teabag and spoon and all) back to bed where I can curl up and drink my tea from the spoon until it's cool enough to sip directly from the mug. I want this tea, specifically, in this teabag that's going to be stuck to the side of the mug when I wake up in the morning feeling better because I finally got some sleep. This is my comfort tea.Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:51:30 -0500/teas/Peppermint/947-peppermint?note=25134
Citron Green from Adagio TeasThe leaves for this tea smell absolutely wonderful, light and green, and the tea I brewed from them had the same lovely scent. I was terribly disappointed to take a sip and discover that there was nothing there to taste at all. There was enough green that I was sure I'd actually picked up the tea and not a cup of hot water, but no citrus at all and hardly any tea.
Now, to be fair, I strongly suspect that I've kept this tea too long -- I discovered the unopened tin recently, and I'm not sure when I acquired it. It's possible that the flavor was lost before the scent. If it can be made to taste anything like it smells, I would like to try this one again.Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:30:29 -0500/teas/Citron%20Green/226-citron-green?note=25139
Emperor's Choice from Celestial SeasoningsI loved this tea when I was younger!Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:52:32 -0500/teas/Emperor's%20Choice/8780-emperors-choice?note=25160
Citron Green from Adagio TeasOn a tip from Cofftea (http://steepster.com/Cait/posts/25139) I tried this again with cooler water and a shorter steeping time. That did bring out a little more taste, but not really a whole lot more -- certainly nothing like what the other reviewers are describing -- and it produced a very rough-textured tea as well. I think I shall just pour the rest of these sweet-scented leaves into a potpourri dish and look into obtaining a fresh batch for drinking.Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:57:46 -0500/teas/Citron%20Green/226-citron-green?note=25163
Lady Hannah's Whole Fruit from Metropolitan Tea CompanyThis is an incredibly hefty, filling fruit tea, absolutely my favorite of the Tea Table tea of the month teas so far. It's delicious and utterly full of fruit, with the strongest tastes being strawberry and blackberry. No matter how I steep it, it never comes out less than chewy -- I am at a loss to know why the company's website describes this as a "mild flavor"! Although they're quite correct about its lovely deep magenta color. I need to order more of this right away.Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:15:26 -0500/teas/Lady%20Hannah's%20Whole%20Fruit/8785-lady-hannahs-whole-fruit?note=25178
Original Blend from Red Rose<i>Red Rose Orange Pekoe and Pekoe Cut Black Tea</i> really should have been the first tea that I reviewed here, since this was the tea of my childhood.
--Childhood? you ask. Just how young was I?
There's a funny story there. It started with my first job: I spent the summer I was fifteen working for my aunt who owned a stable. The trainer, the barn manager, and all of the other stablehands were adults, and they all drank coffee. Since I was a young'un, they'd rinse out the coffee pot, refill it with plain water, and point me at the small stash of cocoa in the back of the office. Unsurprisingly, this was a real pain for everyone, and eventually I just took a cup of coffee, dumped in terrifying amounts of sugar and non-dairy creamer, and decided that it tasted pretty much the same (the water had never gotten particularly non-coffee-flavored) so what was the difference, right? And hey, I was a teenager, and if all of that caffeine made me jittery, nobody noticed a thing.
And then, at the end of summer, I left on vacation with my family. First day of vacation, we're at the beach, of <i>course</i> it's awfully bright. Second day, still bright, the headache is really setting in. I'm gulping lemonade by the bucketful and trying desperately to explain this agony to my mother. My mother, the caffeine-drinker of my immediate family, recognizes these symptoms. She extracts the story of the cocoa-coffee from me and suggests I go cold turkey. I explain the agony a little more. Since it <i>is</i> a shame to waste a vacation on withdrawal, she brews me some coffee. Third day, I spend the morning bounding gleefully across the sand dunes, then seek out my mother for another caffeine hit.
Let's try weaning you off slowly, she suggests, and makes me tea. This tea, in fact. I doctor it up like the coffee with sugar and actual milk and am amazed to discover that not only does my headache go away, but this tastes <i>good</i>. I keep drinking it.
We get home from vacation. I keep drinking it.
(I go to college and shift up to coffee, then to expresso beans, then to caffeinated water. I don't sleep much.)
In grad school, I return to my tea. I have, by that point, had many teas on many outings, but none of them are morning tea. Morning tea is Red Rose with milk and a bit of sugar.
Eventually, as I dropped out of grad school and began commuting to an office in the mornings, I let go of my childhood morning tea. But still, I remain fond and nostalgic. In my mind, this tea is served in at the kitchen table in a brown ceramic mug with the string of the teabag wrapped once around the handle; it's milky smooth, not <i>too</i> sweet, extremely tasty, and just the right sipping temperature the entire time.
And yes, I still have fifteen or twenty of the ridiculous figurines. Somehow, more than a third of them are polar bears. Make of that what you will.Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:39:32 -0500/teas/Original%20Blend/687-original-blend?note=25219
Citron Green from Harney & SonsAh, now this is a nice green, very refreshing.
I am growing very amused that every time I find a tea I particularly like, the company describes it as "basic" or "introductory".Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:43:29 -0500/teas/Citron%20Green/6194-citron-green?note=25649
Green Pekoe from Adagio TeasOh, very nice! It smelled and looked lovely in the tin, but it had a very weak color and hardly any scent at all in the mug -- I almost let it steep longer, and then I thought, No, I always do this to green teas; I should just drink it. And I'm glad I did, because all of that loveliness came right back out in the taste.Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:10:34 -0500/teas/Green%20Pekoe/214-green-pekoe?note=25951
Jasmine Tea from Fujian TeaI'm fairly sure that I oversteeped this, as it came out so incredibly bitter that I had to add sugar just to drink it. I'll give at another try and an actual rating some other time.
Note to self: stop getting distracted while brewing your tea!
Although I do have to mention that I have this tea in an utterly gorgeous tin, dark blue with flying cranes, and the tea's pretty much worth it just for that. I wish I remembered where I got it from.Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:23:09 -0500/teas/Jasmine%20Tea/4787-jasmine-tea?note=25953
Ceylon Black & Rooibos Caramel from CustomI have no idea where this rooibos caramel comes from. I have an old Teavana tin with "Roo. Caram." scrawled across the label in my handwriting, so obviously at one point I knew more about it...you know, for someone who catalogues as obsessively as I do, I've managed my teas rather poorly so far. Anyway, this rooibos caramel isn't much good on its own -- it's far too sweet in a cloying sort of way -- so I keep it to sweeten my other teas. Today I tossed it in with an old and rather bitter Ceylon Black that really needs the help, and the result was a nicely balanced cup of black tea. It would have been too bitter for a first cup of the morning, but as a second one the bitter was mixed with the caramel and the rooibos nicely. (I'll refrain from any philosophical generalizations on the blending!)Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:48:28 -0500/teas/Ceylon%20Black%20&%20Rooibos%20Caramel/9013-ceylon-black-and-rooibos-caramel?note=26078
Black Tea with Vanilla from Fortnum & MasonThu, 28 Jan 2010 10:15:01 -0500/teas/Black%20Tea%20with%20Vanilla/8771-black-tea-with-vanilla?note=26175
Vanilla Black Tea & Peppermint Leaves from CustomAlas, this did not work very well; there's a really strange aftertaste along the lines of a too-sweet toothpaste. It's still smooth, though -- apparently you just can't wreck this Fortnum & Mason Vanilla. Sadly, that's the last of mine.Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:49:09 -0500/teas/Vanilla%20Black%20Tea%20&%20Peppermint%20Leaves/9044-vanilla-black-tea-and-peppermint-leaves?note=26207
Ginger Tea (Sugarless) from Beauti-LeafWhen I first got this tea, it was best described as "*GINGER* in tea format". It knocked you down and sat on you with ginger. Now, a couple of years later, it is merely a ginger tea. While this is less dramatic, it's much more drinkable. I left the teabag in the mug to see if it would get more flavor as it kept steeping (it did), but I wound up drinking it too quickly to judge much of the difference. I'm a huge ginger fan, and this tea as it stands now is a wonderful way to drink it. I'll have to see if I can turn up a fresh box and do a comparison ....
I made this tea because my girlfriend wasn't feeling well and it's a very warming tea when you're achy. It's got a bit of a rasp, but not the way tea normally does; it's the part of the ginger taste which just keeps lingering. This tea is quite sweet, which may be why it makes a big deal out of being sugarless - I guess they thought people would doubt!Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:20:38 -0500/teas/Ginger%20Tea%20(Sugarless)/8789-ginger-tea-sugarless?note=26241
Chamomile & Rooibos Tropica from CustomI'm not a big fan of the vaguely bread-like flavor of chamomile, so I put in a smidge of rooibos tropica to liven it up. And it did! The tea came out pale-pale-pale, but it had all the fullness of chamomile and a nice little zing on top from the sweet rooibos tropica. I will have to remember this for the next time I crave some chamomile. I might try adding a little sugar so that not all of the sweetness is coming from the rooibos, although that could also end up being too much.
(My girlfriend pronounced, with a tone of great surprise, that this was "Huh! _Actually_ comforting.")Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:22:20 -0500/teas/Chamomile%20&%20Rooibos%20Tropica/9062-chamomile-and-rooibos-tropica?note=26284
Genmai Cha from Adagio TeasFri, 29 Jan 2010 16:22:53 -0500/teas/Genmai%20Cha/212-genmai-cha?note=26378
Earl Grey from Harney & SonsNormally I find Earl Grey to be too intense a flavor in my tea, especially first thing in the morning, but this is a very nice, mellow Earl Grey that adds to the tea instead of overwhelming it. I made a big mug of it this morning and scraped in the last of my big jar of local honey, which amounted to nearly half a spoonful. Mmm, that makes Monday morning a little better.Mon, 01 Feb 2010 09:29:30 -0500/teas/Earl%20Grey/3019-earl-grey?note=26716
Lady Hannah's Whole Fruit from Metropolitan Tea CompanyAlas, there's the last of it. I definitely need more of this -- and, really, I need more fruity herbal teas overall. I always drink them up so quickly that I'm left in front of my tea shelves staring at the black and green teas and wondering why nothing sounds just right.Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:15:46 -0500/teas/Lady%20Hannah's%20Whole%20Fruit/8785-lady-hannahs-whole-fruit?note=26731
Rooibos Tropica from TeavanaMon, 01 Feb 2010 15:26:03 -0500/teas/Rooibos%20Tropica/2336-rooibos-tropica?note=26783
Pineapple Ginger from The Republic of TeaMon, 01 Feb 2010 18:15:18 -0500/teas/Pineapple%20Ginger/5311-pineapple-ginger?note=26807
Earl Grey from Harney & SonsTried this with milk this morning and it didn't work as well. Somehow, the milk makes it extremely watery. It's still tasty, but I like it better without.Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:32:23 -0500/teas/Earl%20Grey/3019-earl-grey?note=26870
Marco Polo from Mariage FrèresTue, 02 Feb 2010 12:24:07 -0500/teas/Marco%20Polo/1330-marco-polo?note=26899
Echinacea and Raspberry from TwiningsTue, 02 Feb 2010 17:48:01 -0500/teas/Echinacea%20and%20Raspberry/1837-echinacea-and-raspberry?note=26987
Holiday Dream from The Tea TableWed, 03 Feb 2010 09:06:43 -0500/teas/Holiday%20Dream/8772-holiday-dream?note=27070
Will's Ambrosia Tea from Cyphre VoudouThu, 04 Feb 2010 13:52:45 -0500/teas/Will's%20Ambrosia%20Tea/8778-wills-ambrosia-tea?note=27243
Breakfast Tea from UnknownYes, okay, _this_ tea is clearly well past its useful life. I might as well dump the rest of it out and use the tin for something better.
The frog-shaped infuser is still pleasing, though!Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:54:07 -0500/teas/Breakfast%20Tea/9328-breakfast-tea?note=27245
Will's Ambrosia Tea from Cyphre VoudouFri, 05 Feb 2010 11:17:49 -0500/teas/Will's%20Ambrosia%20Tea/8778-wills-ambrosia-tea?note=27379
Jack's Royale Jamaican Rum Tea from Cyphre VoudouSat, 06 Feb 2010 13:28:31 -0500/teas/Jack's%20Royale%20Jamaican%20Rum%20Tea/8779-jacks-royale-jamaican-rum-tea?note=27501
Earl Grey from Harney & SonsAccidentally oversteeped this, so I tried it with milk again. It's standing up to it a little better, but the milk is still killing a lot of the flavor.Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:04:14 -0500/teas/Earl%20Grey/3019-earl-grey?note=27698
Buckingham Palace Garden Party from The Tea TableI'd forgotten I had some of this left! It got lost in the back of my "samples" section.
I think I made this a little too strong, but it's quite bracing! It goes down bitter, but there's a lingering aftertaste that isn't sweet but feels like it ought to be, if that makes sense. And it's a lovely dark brown that _looks_ strong; I do like when teas look like they taste.Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:22:28 -0500/teas/Buckingham%20Palace%20Garden%20Party/965-buckingham-palace-garden-party?note=27721
Wild Sweet Orange from TazoAugh, augh, what did I do to be punished like this? This tea smelled _so_ _good_ when I opened the packet with the tea bag, and it smells almost as good brewed, so I keep sipping it, thinking, Surely I must have been imagining how sour this is!
...It has a sweet if slightly medicinal aftertaste, at least? Once my mouth unpuckers, I mean.
I think I will try steeping this drastically less. Perhaps I will pour hot water _near_ the tea bag.Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:26:00 -0500/teas/Wild%20Sweet%20Orange/2-wild-sweet-orange?note=27764
Peaches and Cream Tea from The Tea TableGiven that my city just got two feet of snow dumped on it this weekend and another foot is expected tonight, I had resigned myself to my Tea Table subscription not getting here for another week at least. However, I give respect to the US Postal Service after all, because there it was this morning!
This one sounded delicious and smelled very peaches-and-cream-y, both in the leaves and while steeping. And there _is_ an absolutely lovely peaches and cream taste to it, but there's also an immense bitterness as a taste and as an aftertaste. I dropped two lumps of sugar in, and it's drinkable. I think perhaps if I were having this with dessert I would enjoy this level of bitterness for the flavor, but if this is a typical steep then it's definitely not a morning tea --
-- Wait, hang on a sec. I just had a brilliant idea: _milk_.
-- Oh yes, that does it! A tiny splash of milk cut right through the bitterness. It really brings out the flavor, too. Oh, this is good! Definitely heavy on the cream with a hint of fruit; I wouldn't necessarily pin "peaches" on it if I didn't already know, but it's not _not_ peaches. I think I need to make myself another cup of this and add milk right away this time.Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:11:57 -0500/teas/Peaches%20and%20Cream%20Tea/8699-peaches-and-cream-tea?note=27897
Peaches and Cream Tea from The Tea TableWed, 10 Feb 2010 10:11:17 -0500/teas/Peaches%20and%20Cream%20Tea/8699-peaches-and-cream-tea?note=28067
Strawberry Kiwi Tea from The Tea TableMy first thought when I opened this packet of tea was: doesn't my girlfriend have this lip gloss?
So it definitely smells like artificial fruit. A lot of things do; it's pretty much impossible for anything but actual fresh strawberries to smell or taste like fresh strawberries, and I also like fruit flavoring as its own thing. I don't smell kiwi particularly, but there's definitely something mixed with the strawberries.
Steeped, the tea is the _color_ of strawberry dessert topping. I find this amusing.
Sipped, it feels like fruit tea, one of those really tart (but not at all sour) ones that roughs up your mouth on the way through. It's the sort of feel that makes it hard to taste anything, although it definitely leaves the lingering impression that actual fruit has come this way. The taste isn't artificial at all.
You know, I don't brew a lot of my own iced tea, but this tea does stand out as one that could be really good iced, served very cold and a bit weak with a small amount of sugar. I'm not going to try it -- I don't know if I can really express how little the weather suits iced tea right now, but go ahead and google "north american east coast blizzard 2010" if you're curious -- but I will keep it in mind!Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:34:02 -0500/teas/Strawberry%20Kiwi%20Tea/9622-strawberry-kiwi-tea?note=28091
Fine Ti Kuan Yin Oolong Tea from The Tea TableOh my. I lump "oolong" and "green" together in my mind most of the time, but this tea may just force me to accept finer distinctions. This is an absolutely delicious tea, very sweet and flowery, and not at all what I expect when I think of green tea. Oolong, huh.
_ETA_: And it's definitely getting juicer with resteeping. Interesting!Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:42:03 -0500/teas/Fine%20Ti%20Kuan%20Yin%20Oolong%20Tea/9683-fine-ti-kuan-yin-oolong-tea?note=28141
Georgia Sunshine from TeaSourceThu, 11 Feb 2010 09:52:48 -0500/teas/Georgia%20Sunshine/8838-georgia-sunshine?note=28222
Fine Ti Kuan Yin Oolong Tea from The Tea TableThu, 11 Feb 2010 14:36:50 -0500/teas/Fine%20Ti%20Kuan%20Yin%20Oolong%20Tea/9683-fine-ti-kuan-yin-oolong-tea?note=28274
Citron Green from Harney & SonsNormally I don't sweeten green tea, but I have an awful sore throat so I spooned in some honey. Bearing in mind that I am stuffed up enough to taste maybe half of this, it's quite nice this way: sharp enough that I can tell it's there, but smooth and comforting anyway.Fri, 12 Feb 2010 10:00:52 -0500/teas/Citron%20Green/6194-citron-green?note=28403
Chocolate Monkey from Art of Tea...This tea tastes and smells exactly like banana taffy! And yet my teeth aren't stuck together. Tea for the win!Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:30:26 -0500/teas/Chocolate%20Monkey/2885-chocolate-monkey?note=28453
Velvet Tea from Art of TeaI will reserve full judgement until my head cold clears up and my taste buds are my own again, but I liked this so far. What I can get out of it is a strong, rough rooibos with a chocolate sweetness, no mint or vanilla. I do like rooibos for itself as well as for being a good flavoring base, so that's a reasonable first tasting.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to open a new kleenex box....Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:21:45 -0500/teas/Velvet%20Tea/2887-velvet-tea?note=28561
Vanilla Berry Truffle from Art of TeaI feel a little bad about logging all of these tasting notes when I can't really taste the tea, but it's kind of useful for me to remind myself that this tea is really good with a great big dollop of honey: it's very smooth and sweet, and the sour berry scent from the dry leaves is completely gone leaving only an interesting tang.
(As you may have gathered by now, I got myself the Art of Tea Dessert Sampler off of the steepster select a while ago and am working my way through it!)Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:09:08 -0500/teas/Vanilla%20Berry%20Truffle/2886-vanilla-berry-truffle?note=28604
Vanilla Berry Truffle from Art of TeaMon, 15 Feb 2010 10:38:34 -0500/teas/Vanilla%20Berry%20Truffle/2886-vanilla-berry-truffle?note=28786
Citron Green from Harney & SonsMon, 15 Feb 2010 10:38:48 -0500/teas/Citron%20Green/6194-citron-green?note=28787
Strawberry Kiwi Tea from The Tea TableTue, 16 Feb 2010 10:16:09 -0500/teas/Strawberry%20Kiwi%20Tea/9622-strawberry-kiwi-tea?note=28927
Citron Green from Harney & SonsWed, 17 Feb 2010 18:21:02 -0500/teas/Citron%20Green/6194-citron-green?note=29197
Canadian Berries from TeaFrogOh, this is exactly what I wanted tonight! It's a very light, gentle fruit tea, neither sweet nor sour but perfect for sipping at the end of a long day.Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:34:34 -0500/teas/Canadian%20Berries/6585-canadian-berries?note=29350
Vanilla Berry Truffle from Art of TeaThu, 18 Feb 2010 20:39:14 -0500/teas/Vanilla%20Berry%20Truffle/2886-vanilla-berry-truffle?note=29352
Peaches and Cream Tea from The Tea TableFri, 19 Feb 2010 12:13:43 -0500/teas/Peaches%20and%20Cream%20Tea/8699-peaches-and-cream-tea?note=29435
Organic Pearl River from The Tea TableFri, 19 Feb 2010 15:28:38 -0500/teas/Organic%20Pearl%20River/993-organic-pearl-river?note=29480
Will's Ambrosia Tea from Cyphre VoudouOkay, I think I've figured out the trick of this tea, and that's to let it steep and steep and steep until you're sure that it's going to be wickedly bitter.
I first tried this tea years ago (looking at the possibilities, probably 2004, so, yes, years ago -- time is scary on occasion) when I went to MediaWest*Con every year. (Now I actually run a local con in the same timeframe, so I haven't been in quite a while.) One of the room dealers sold products from Cyphre Voudou and I picked up a bag of this tea on a whim, along with some other things like a calendar of woodcut leaves and soap shaped like a tombstone. The calendar was pretty, the soap is still my preferred brand, and the tea, the tea! The tea was indeed *ambrosia*. I nursed that little bag of tea along for almost a year, and every cup was wonderful. And I kept the little tag on it just in case I ever went back to MWC so I could find that dealer, until it occurred to me that perhaps since then they'd put up a website. And they had! And I ordered this wonderful tea from them! And it was...okay.
_sigh_
This is just as disappointing as you think. Did I imagine it? Has their blend changed? Did I just get a really good packet the first time, or a bum one this time? Heavily oversteeped I do get some of the spicy-sweet fruitiness I remember (and, in fact, none of the bitterness you'd expect from abusing an innocent tea this way) but this is in no way the tea of the gods I know I had before. It's not a _bad_ tea! But I can't help feeling disappointed.Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:37:51 -0500/teas/Will's%20Ambrosia%20Tea/8778-wills-ambrosia-tea?note=29535
Darjeeling Princeton TGFOP1 from Mariage FrèresSlightly bitter yet tasty underneath: yes, I'm at work on Saturday morning, but I really do enjoy my job. Also I'm drinking tea.Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:47:29 -0500/teas/Darjeeling%20Princeton%20TGFOP1/7354-darjeeling-princeton-tgfop1?note=29588
Chocolate & Ginger Spice from TeaFrogOkay, I'm not ashamed to say that I was deeply intimidated by this tea. When my TeaFrog box arrived, the only thing I smelled when I opened it was chocolate and spice -- and it was all coming from this one sample bag. I wrapped the sample bag (unopened) in a second bag and put that in a cannister, and still that entire corner of my kitchen was overwhelmed by chocolate and spices. I made myself a cup tonight because it seemed like a good night for it, but also in a bit of self-defense!
I was surprised, then, to find that the steeping tea smelled hardly of chocolate at all. The predominant spice when dry had been ginger; brewing, the peppercorns met up with the ginger and began taking over. I was too impatient to steep it for very long, and began sipping it from a spoon right away. The tea itself is a reddish-brown, not dark but rather murky in a way that matches the spicy scent.
Hot, it tastes almost entirely of peppercorns, but it's very smooth underneath (is this where the chocolate comes in?). There's a peppery tingle on the tongue and a gingery tingle at the back of the mouth -- this is not a tea that's sitting still to be drunk! And I was quite right to wait until I had an evening to savor it, because this is a tea that demands my full attention while drinking. As it's cooling, there's a little more chocolate flavor coming through, almost like the peppercorns, having made their point, have decided to graciously back off a step and let the other ingredients have their say.
_ETA_: A second steeping, at five and a half minutes, brings out rather more chocolate; I would still call this a pepper tea with chocolate and ginger flavors, but it's an interesting change. It's also distinctly darker from the longer steeping.
And now the quandary: I want more of this tea, but I'm not sure I dare acquire an entire tin of it lest my entire kitchen wind up smelling as though my spice rack and my cocoa powder just staggered in together after a wild night on the town.Sat, 20 Feb 2010 20:52:42 -0500/teas/Chocolate%20&%20Ginger%20Spice/6588-chocolate-and-ginger-spice?note=29641
I Love Lemon from BigelowMon, 22 Feb 2010 09:22:14 -0500/teas/I%20Love%20Lemon/3139-i-love-lemon?note=29790
Earl Grey from Harney & SonsMon, 22 Feb 2010 09:22:40 -0500/teas/Earl%20Grey/3019-earl-grey?note=29791
Darjeeling Princeton TGFOP1 from Mariage FrèresMon, 22 Feb 2010 14:28:46 -0500/teas/Darjeeling%20Princeton%20TGFOP1/7354-darjeeling-princeton-tgfop1?note=29848
Peaches and Cream Tea from The Tea TableTue, 23 Feb 2010 09:36:43 -0500/teas/Peaches%20and%20Cream%20Tea/8699-peaches-and-cream-tea?note=29942
Mango Ceylon from The Republic of TeaDefinitely good, as I'd expect from Republic of Tea. Fruity and sweet without being cloying. It's no Blackberry Sage, but if I needed a fruity black tea, I wouldn't say no to this one.Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:54:39 -0500/teas/Mango%20Ceylon/1171-mango-ceylon?note=29982
Blueberry Flavoured White from TeaFrogHuh. This is, indeed, deliciously blueberry, especially in the smell as it steeps but also in the flavor. However--
Did I do something wrong to the white tea underneath it? I haven't had much white tea, but the one word that everyone uses over and over for it is "delicate". This tea doesn't _taste_ delicate, so I can only conclude that it _is_ delicate: I have been too rough, and the tea is giving as good (or bad) as it got.Tue, 23 Feb 2010 17:15:30 -0500/teas/Blueberry%20Flavoured%20White/6571-blueberry-flavoured-white?note=30015
Awake English Breakfast from TazoWed, 24 Feb 2010 12:18:34 -0500/teas/Awake%20English%20Breakfast/497-awake-english-breakfast?note=30113
Taiwan Sweet Summer Oolong from Life In TeacupThis is a very assertive tea! Right up front, this tea says, _Hello there, you're drinking some mighty fine tea, aren't you?_
I gave this tea a rinse and then steeped it at my standard cooled-for-greens temperature (I don't have a thermometer, so this is all approximate) for twenty seconds, because I'd read the directions from Life In Teacup (near boiling, twenty seconds) and then failed to fully follow them. I was nervous about the short steep time until I smelled the leaves steeping: they smelled extremely strong! The first steep was a very light yellow-green and it tasted a little light as well, probably because I'd used the cooler water, but it was definitely tasty. I was a little worried because it was a tad rough-feeling in spite of the lightness, so I went back and checked the directions, which is when I noticed my temperature mistake! Second steep was hotter water for another twenty seconds and the color was a noticeably darker yellow. This time the tea was smoother and had an exciting sort of peppery taste. Third steep like the second, and the tea is less peppery and more fruity. It still has that strong, dramatic _tea_ taste over everything!Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:18:50 -0500/teas/Taiwan%20Sweet%20Summer%20Oolong/9710-taiwan-sweet-summer-oolong?note=30114
Peaches and Cream Tea from The Tea TableThu, 25 Feb 2010 09:16:43 -0500/teas/Peaches%20and%20Cream%20Tea/8699-peaches-and-cream-tea?note=30242
Love from TeaFrogSo...this is a mug of Love. And when I brewed it up the first time, I oversteeped and it came out murky and dark red -- and I don't know about you, but for me the thought of menstrual blood was kind of _unavoidable_. The tea didn't smell in any way bloody, but I definitely had to nerve myself up for that first sip of hot, wet, blood-colored love! And while it turns out to taste sort of woodsy-spicy and a bit mild, context is _so much_; I really don't think I can give this one a fair rating, or even a more thorough review.Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:00:23 -0500/teas/Love/6549-love?note=30330
Earl Grey from Harney & SonsFri, 26 Feb 2010 08:37:58 -0500/teas/Earl%20Grey/3019-earl-grey?note=30380
Taiwan Sweet Summer Oolong from Life In TeacupSat, 27 Feb 2010 12:59:01 -0500/teas/Taiwan%20Sweet%20Summer%20Oolong/9710-taiwan-sweet-summer-oolong?note=30549
Fine Ti Kuan Yin Oolong Tea from The Tea TableMon, 01 Mar 2010 11:35:52 -0500/teas/Fine%20Ti%20Kuan%20Yin%20Oolong%20Tea/9683-fine-ti-kuan-yin-oolong-tea?note=30751
Peaches and Cream Tea from The Tea TableTue, 02 Mar 2010 09:33:47 -0500/teas/Peaches%20and%20Cream%20Tea/8699-peaches-and-cream-tea?note=30883
Caramelized Pear from Art of TeaWOW.
Perhaps it is merely sense memory, but I swear this tea is _textured_ like a perfectly ripe pear.
This is so good!Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:55:29 -0500/teas/Caramelized%20Pear/2884-caramelized-pear?note=30920
Earl Grey from Harney & SonsWed, 03 Mar 2010 10:17:26 -0500/teas/Earl%20Grey/3019-earl-grey?note=31047
An Xi Tie Guan Yin traditional charcoal roast from Life In TeacupOh, this is amazing! It's all smoky and sweet and complicated, and it's light without being at all weak, if that makes sense. It smelled wonderful as soon as I ripped open the shiny vacuum-sealed sample packet, and it just kept getting better. I'm going back for a third steep now with my hopes very high....Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:17:00 -0500/teas/An%20Xi%20Tie%20Guan%20Yin%20traditional%20charcoal%20roast/9712-an-xi-tie-guan-yin-traditional-charcoal-roast?note=31069
Sun's Up from The Tea TableFirst of March's sample set!
Hmm. This is tasty, but there are mouth-pucker throat-burn levels of tanginess here. Perhaps I'll try shorter steeps, or more honey.
_Edited to add_: Weirdly, adding copious amounts of honey to the second steep brings the mint way, way out -- it's like an entirely different tea! A _far_ too sweet tea, unfortunately. Now I shall have to hunt for a happy medium....Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:09:47 -0500/teas/Sun's%20Up/10328-suns-up?note=31261
Earl Grey from Harney & SonsFri, 05 Mar 2010 09:25:05 -0500/teas/Earl%20Grey/3019-earl-grey?note=31332
Lemon Green from The Tea TableThis tea smells _amazingly_ like lemon candy when dry. Sadly, that probably bumped the tea down a few notches here, because it doesn't taste like lemon candy -- it's very sweet (I did add honey as they recommended), and it definitely has both lemon and candy tones, but it's not that bright lemon drop experience. On the other hand, once I got over that disappointment, it's a lovely lemon green tea! It's very smooth and earthy underneath the lemon -- brewed it smells a bit grassy, in a really nice way -- and it's not at all puckery, nor is it medicinal once the honey is added. (It was faintly back-of-the-mouth-medicine in the first few sips before I put in a small squeeze of honey, but that might also have been that the water was still rather hot.)
Also, it's very pretty dry: take a look at the picture!Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:56:49 -0500/teas/Lemon%20Green/10326-lemon-green?note=31392
Earl Grey from Harney & SonsMon, 08 Mar 2010 09:02:55 -0500/teas/Earl%20Grey/3019-earl-grey?note=31660
Moroccan Mint from The Tea TableEh. There's nothing wrong with this tea, but nothing exciting, either. It smelled a bit smoky, but I couldn't find any taste of it; mostly it was just spearmint, with an aftertaste of tea.
I think I approach mint tea the way some people approach coffee: I keep hoping it will taste as good as it smells, and I keep being disappointed.Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:06:24 -0500/teas/Moroccan%20Mint/991-moroccan-mint?note=31688
Sun's Up from The Tea TableBumping it up a few notches for making a nice iced tea. (Not, alas, fantastic enough to make me feel better about having shattered the top of my favorite glass teapot in steeping it.)
Iced, with a bit of honey during the brewing and a bit of sugar cooled, it gives a mint front with a rose hip kicker. And it's very very pink. This would probably be a good party drink!Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:34:46 -0500/teas/Sun's%20Up/10328-suns-up?note=31700
Chocolate Monkey from Art of TeaOh yeah, I'm drinking dessert tea for breakfast and you can't stop me!Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:43:14 -0500/teas/Chocolate%20Monkey/2885-chocolate-monkey?note=31812
An Xi Tie Guan Yin traditional charcoal roast from Life In TeacupHmm. I'm not sure what I'm doing differently this time, but I'm getting much less of a smoky flavor, which is a shame -- I'd really been craving the smoky/sweet taste of this one. It's still there, but weaker. Perhaps I used too little leaf?Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:15:30 -0500/teas/An%20Xi%20Tie%20Guan%20Yin%20traditional%20charcoal%20roast/9712-an-xi-tie-guan-yin-traditional-charcoal-roast?note=31858
Earl Grey from Harney & SonsMmm, this is just a darn fine breakfast tea.Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:47:13 -0500/teas/Earl%20Grey/3019-earl-grey?note=31958
Chocolate & Ginger Spice from TeaFrogI made a weaker pot of it this time, to share, and the pepper was definitely not as sharp. Still exciting, though!Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:23:31 -0500/teas/Chocolate%20&%20Ginger%20Spice/6588-chocolate-and-ginger-spice?note=32036
Joy from TazoThu, 11 Mar 2010 10:19:08 -0500/teas/Joy/943-joy?note=32117
Oregon Peppermint from San Francisco Herb and Natural FoodHuh. Given that I have no idea how old this teabag is but guesses range from two to five years, this is a surprisingly nice peppermint tea.
Oh, the joys of cleaning the storage closet!Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:39:37 -0500/teas/Oregon%20Peppermint/10580-oregon-peppermint?note=32119
Strawberry Kiwi Tea from The Tea TableTried to make an iced tea out of this, but alas I made it too weak -- there was hardly anything to taste. I need to get some nice carafes for overnight fridge steeping, I think.Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:45:24 -0500/teas/Strawberry%20Kiwi%20Tea/9622-strawberry-kiwi-tea?note=32149
An Xi Tie Guan Yin traditional charcoal roast from Life In TeacupAh, there we go. That's what I remember from that first tasting. Note to self: there's no point in making this tea if you make it too weak!
(Further note to self: when you order more, order a _lot_ more so you're not tempted to try stretching it out!)Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:04:11 -0500/teas/An%20Xi%20Tie%20Guan%20Yin%20traditional%20charcoal%20roast/9712-an-xi-tie-guan-yin-traditional-charcoal-roast?note=32279
Four Seasons from SamovarHmm. I tried this with the mini-steeps that Life in Teacup recommends for oolongs -- they seemed like a good fit for my new mini-teapot! -- but I think I might try this again with the long steeping suggested by Samovar next time.
This tea _smells_ earthy; I can't think of another way to describe it. With short steeps, though, it tastes lighter and feels heavier than that. I had four cups in four hours -- not a whole lot, really, given how _teeny-tiny omg adorable_ this little teapot is -- and I felt full and weighed down! For the fifth steep, I went for three minutes, and the resulting tea changed quite a bit: it was more complex and it tasted a bit heavier. However, it also grew bitter very quickly as it cooled.Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:28:04 -0400/teas/Four%20Seasons/2150-four-seasons?note=32663
Lemon Green from The Tea TableThis also makes a lovely mid-day palate cleanser!Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:34:51 -0400/teas/Lemon%20Green/10326-lemon-green?note=32665
Caramel from The Tea TableBizarrely sour. I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt and hold off rating until I can try this again with a fresh steep.Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:59:00 -0400/teas/Caramel/10327-caramel?note=32756
Pineapple Ginger from The Republic of TeaTue, 16 Mar 2010 11:00:02 -0400/teas/Pineapple%20Ginger/5311-pineapple-ginger?note=32757
Caramelized Pear from Art of TeaMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, pear.Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:46:15 -0400/teas/Caramelized%20Pear/2884-caramelized-pear?note=32788
Darjeeling Princeton TGFOP1 from Mariage FrèresWed, 17 Mar 2010 12:26:36 -0400/teas/Darjeeling%20Princeton%20TGFOP1/7354-darjeeling-princeton-tgfop1?note=32885
Sun's Up from The Tea TableOkay, this gets a bit more of a bump up. It makes a really nice cold-brewed fizzy iced tea!
Cold-brewed fizzy iced tea:
1. In a lidded glass carafe, put:
-* 2 liters cold seltzer water
-* 3 heaping teaspoons of Sun's Up
-* 2 heaping teaspoons of sugar
2. Cuss while running for the sink because you forgot that adding sugar to seltzer water makes it fizz up.
3. Clean the outside of the carafe.
4. Add another teaspoon of Sun's Up to the carafe to replace what was lost in the fizzing up.
5. Put the lid on.
6. Put the carafe in the fridge.
7. Check on it periodically to watch it turn a gorgeous pink color.
8. For lunch the next day, put your tea basket over a tall glass and pour the iced tea through it to strain.
9. Sip contentedly, enjoying the coolness of the mint with the sharpness of the hibiscus and seltzer.
10. Eye the rest of the carafe greedily.
Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:18:18 -0400/teas/Sun's%20Up/10328-suns-up?note=32904
Caramel from The Tea TableOkay, "sour" isn't really the right word. There's something going on here which I'm experiencing as neither bitter nor sweet, though, and I can't seem to mesh it with my "caramel tea" expectations. Perhaps I'm just holding it up against Fortnum & Mason's vanilla tea.Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:59:37 -0400/teas/Caramel/10327-caramel?note=33024
Sun's Up from The Tea TableThu, 18 Mar 2010 15:40:11 -0400/teas/Sun's%20Up/10328-suns-up?note=33042
Bamboo Leaf Green Tea (Zhu Ye Qing) from Life In TeacupInteresting! I dropped some leaves in my mug and poured down-a-bit-from-boiling water in, then spent several minutes going "ooh" as the leaves gracefully unrolled and arrowed down through the water. The water started darkening almost right away and was a pinkish sort of gold by the time most of the leaves were off the top of the mug and I could start sipping.
The first steep of this was _really_ strong. Not bitter, but certainly harsh. I wasn't enamored, but I figured I might as well keep going (if nothing else, the excuse to get up and walk away from the project documentation I'm writing for long enough to heat the water was a draw!).
By the second steep, all of the leaves were down on the base of the mug, but many of them were just barely touching down, like they were dancing around down there. To my surprise, this steep was very different, smoother and with a lingering sweet aftertaste to each sip. For the third steep, it's sweet almost all the way through, with a lingering astringency and juiciness.Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:38:26 -0400/teas/Bamboo%20Leaf%20Green%20Tea%20(Zhu%20Ye%20Qing)/9713-bamboo-leaf-green-tea-zhu-ye-qing?note=33048
Peppermint from Celestial SeasoningsOof. Not a great day today -- it was more of a call in sick, stagger weakly into the kitchen to put the kettle on, then stagger carefully to the sofa to cradle a comfort mug sort of day.
As much as I love all the new fancy teas I've been discovering lately, sometimes you just need that reassurance.Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:40:29 -0400/teas/Peppermint/947-peppermint?note=33204
Tie Guan Yin Grade II Modern Green Style from Life In TeacupMy god, it's full of -stars- flowers!
When I ripped open the little sample foil packet, I couldn't smell much of anything, but when I gave the leaves a rinse and set the pot back on the counter, I turned around going, "Wait, why does it smell like flowers in here? Is that coming from outside...but it's not spring flowers...it's more like orchids...wait just a moment!" And yes, it was the tea leaves.
So I poured myself a fifteen-second steep in my teeny-tiny pot and promptly burned my tongue trying to discover if it tasted like flowers. One glass of cold water and a cautious two-minute wait later, I can tell you this: it doesn't taste like flowers. It tastes like _candied_ flowers. It tastes like someone dipped orchid petals in sugar. It tastes like spun sugar in a field of orchids. I didn't know tea could _do_ this.
Fifteen-second steep number two: still full of flowers! It's getting a little bit rounder, but this is still the sweetest airy-fairy-flowery tea I've ever tasted. I can't believe there's caffeine in this.
Twenty-second steep number three: the flowers may have come down to earth now, but this tea is still best described as "flowers flowers flowers flowers flowers flowers flowers!"Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:48:06 -0400/teas/Tie%20Guan%20Yin%20Grade%20II%20Modern%20Green%20Style/10562-tie-guan-yin-grade-ii-modern-green-style?note=33397
Earl Grey from Harney & SonsMon, 22 Mar 2010 10:41:40 -0400/teas/Earl%20Grey/3019-earl-grey?note=33458
Earliest Green Tea of the Year - Frosty Spring Yunnan Roast Green from Life In TeacupHmm. I used the brew-in-mug method here again, with cooler water, and this tea began and ended _very_ strong, although it was smoother in the middle. Oddly, the leaves never floated at all, but only unrolled slowly at the bottom of the mug. I was liking it in the middle, for the second steep and around the edges into the first and third steeps, but there's a bitter aftertaste lingering from the third steep.
Still, many thanks to Gingko for letting me try it! (I feel more than a little embarrassed to have forgot to actually, y'know, _sample_ this for several weeks! All the excitement of the very first tea of the year -- and then I let it go to the end of March.)Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:56:28 -0400/teas/Earliest%20Green%20Tea%20of%20the%20Year%20-%20Frosty%20Spring%20Yunnan%20Roast%20Green/10418-earliest-green-tea-of-the-year-frosty-spring-yunnan-roast-green?note=33473
Banana Split from The NecessiTeasMy very first swapped tea! Huzzah for Doulton.
I'm getting some strawberry and definitely banana here (although more in the scent than in the taste), but not really any chocolate, and it's a lot lighter than I expected. It's just barely sweet, not cloying at all. All in all, a nice frilly dessert tea. I might try it with milk next time.
(Thank you, Doulton!)Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:11:29 -0400/teas/Banana%20Split/6123-banana-split?note=33505
Peaches and Cream Tea from The Tea TableTue, 23 Mar 2010 16:13:26 -0400/teas/Peaches%20and%20Cream%20Tea/8699-peaches-and-cream-tea?note=33648
Earliest Green Tea of the Year - Frosty Spring Yunnan Roast Green from Life In TeacupI tried a shorter steep this time, and the tea was a bit different -- it tasted strongly and smelled even more strongly of raisins! I'd heard people describe tea as tasting of raisins before and always wondered what that would be like, since I'd never found it before. Well, here it is, and unfortunately it's reminded me that I don't _like_ raisins. Alas!Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:56:03 -0400/teas/Earliest%20Green%20Tea%20of%20the%20Year%20-%20Frosty%20Spring%20Yunnan%20Roast%20Green/10418-earliest-green-tea-of-the-year-frosty-spring-yunnan-roast-green?note=33658
Blood Orange from Adagio TeasAnother swap tea from *Doulton*! This one is really interesting -- it's heavy on the hibiscus, which for me is usually code for "doesn't matter what else is in the cup, because it all tastes like hibiscus", but this doesn't. It's very strongly citrus; I was expecting something like the flavor of orange slices and that _is_ there, but mostly in the aftertaste, while up front there's more of an orange zest going on which is spicier. The hibiscus is serving mostly to bring out that zest flavor. This is a very stern tea, with a peppery aftertaste going as well just in case you were inclined to take it less than seriously because it's made of fruit.Tue, 23 Mar 2010 18:06:43 -0400/teas/Blood%20Orange/243-blood-orange?note=33666
Asian Mint from TeaFrogThu, 25 Mar 2010 10:03:46 -0400/teas/Asian%20Mint/6551-asian-mint?note=33904
Tie Guan Yin from The Jade TeapotYou know, if you'd come up to me this morning and said, "Cait, how would you like to try a roasted zucchini tea?" I probably would have made one of those faces from the low end of the ratings scale. And yet!
I'm really enjoying this. I'm using mini-steeps, but they're all coming out quite consistent: thick-feeling without being heavy, very smooth, smelling and tasting of roasted veggies, and showing just a hint of sweetness (it actually makes me think of squash blossoms).
Thank you for the sample, Jade Teapot!
Edited to add: Photography!
http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad296/cait_tea/Y29udGVudDovL21lZGlhL2V4dGVybmFs-3.jpgThu, 25 Mar 2010 12:46:43 -0400/teas/Tie%20Guan%20Yin/10866-tie-guan-yin?note=33923
Tie Guan Yin Grade II Modern Green Style from Life In TeacupInteresting! I made this in my larger pot this morning because I wanted to take a full-sized mug and go, and I don't know if it's that I got the proportions different or that the bigger pot is making the water temperature change or what, but this is a much less flowery tea this time! It still tastes of orchids and sugar, but they're much farther back and the tea taste is much thicker now.Sat, 27 Mar 2010 12:53:27 -0400/teas/Tie%20Guan%20Yin%20Grade%20II%20Modern%20Green%20Style/10562-tie-guan-yin-grade-ii-modern-green-style?note=34163
Fine Ti Kuan Yin Oolong Tea from The Tea TableMon, 29 Mar 2010 12:21:46 -0400/teas/Fine%20Ti%20Kuan%20Yin%20Oolong%20Tea/9683-fine-ti-kuan-yin-oolong-tea?note=34366
Dong Ding Oolong traditional medium roast from Life In TeacupI tried this with short steeps, but the resulting tea was barely there (despite turning a beautiful deep golden color almost immediately). So I steeped the third time for two minutes, and what a change! This tea isn't _sweet_, per se, but there's a hint of burnt sugar around the edges; there's still not a lot up front, but the back of it hits almost immediately with a savory grilled flavor that just keeps going.Tue, 30 Mar 2010 12:54:51 -0400/teas/Dong%20Ding%20Oolong%20traditional%20medium%20roast/11260-dong-ding-oolong-traditional-medium-roast?note=34515
Creme Caramel Rooibos from DAVIDsTEAMmm! Another swapped tea from Doulton, and another tasty tasty rooibos. This one smelled nutty but had more of that woody-rooibos taste (the one that apparently you either really hate or really enjoy) which I like with sweet teas. _Very_ smooth. I might try this with a bit of milk next time, I think.Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:54:11 -0400/teas/Creme%20Caramel%20Rooibos/15692-creme-caramel-rooibos?note=34544
Earl Grey from Harney & SonsWed, 31 Mar 2010 11:50:31 -0400/teas/Earl%20Grey/3019-earl-grey?note=34633
Sun's Up from The Tea TableMmm, tasty iced tea.
_bumps up rating again_Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:35:58 -0400/teas/Sun's%20Up/10328-suns-up?note=34658
Tie Guan Yin Grade II Modern Green Style from Life In TeacupYou know, I'm starting to wonder if I didn't do something wrong in storing this -- I put it in a tin, but it's a biggish tin for a small sample. This pot, like the previous one, is just not as flowery as the very first one. I mean, on any other tea I'd be calling this flowery, but here? Only barely.
Well, I've already ordered a bit more. I'll have to see if I can treat the next batch better!
Mmm, flowers.Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:36:40 -0400/teas/Tie%20Guan%20Yin%20Grade%20II%20Modern%20Green%20Style/10562-tie-guan-yin-grade-ii-modern-green-style?note=34660
An Xi Tie Guan Yin traditional charcoal roast from Life In TeacupMmmmmmmmmm!
My order from Life in Teacup just got here yesterday and overwhelmed me with the shiny foil-wrapped temptations waiting within! I feel like a really need to find some time to sit down and thoroughly taste _everything_. Today I don't have that time, but I do have a whole fresh pile of this lovely tea which I already know I love. Mmm, smoky and delicious.Sat, 03 Apr 2010 14:03:10 -0400/teas/An%20Xi%20Tie%20Guan%20Yin%20traditional%20charcoal%20roast/9712-an-xi-tie-guan-yin-traditional-charcoal-roast?note=34979
Huang Jin Gui (Golden Osmanthus) Oolong Traditional Green Style from Life In TeacupHmm. This tea smelled intriguingly nutty, but it tasted very weak. When I tried steeping it longer, it got distressingly bitter without getting any more flavorful. Probably I made it too weak -- I'm still figuring out the best way to judge proportions. I will definitely try it again, because a tea which tasted the way this smelled would be fantastic.
(Backlogged from Saturday.)Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:57:58 -0400/teas/Huang%20Jin%20Gui%20(Golden%20Osmanthus)%20Oolong%20Traditional%20Green%20Style/9155-huang-jin-gui-golden-osmanthus-oolong-traditional-green-style?note=35170
Sun's Up from The Tea TableMon, 05 Apr 2010 13:01:08 -0400/teas/Sun's%20Up/10328-suns-up?note=35171
An Xi Tie Guan Yin traditional charcoal roast from Life In Teacup_oh hi i think i made my tea too strong this morning hi there is a lot of caffeine in here yes indeed there is mmm smoky sweet caffeine it is monday_Mon, 05 Apr 2010 13:01:22 -0400/teas/An%20Xi%20Tie%20Guan%20Yin%20traditional%20charcoal%20roast/9712-an-xi-tie-guan-yin-traditional-charcoal-roast?note=35172
Good Fortune Bloom from Full Bloom TeaSurprisingly good for being a few years old! I got two full pots' worth of tea out of this; the first was sweeter than the second, and I think that the blossom probably stewed a bit between pots. It's a pity Full Bloom Tea has gone out of business. (They're also the source of my big glass teapot, the one that I used for everything before I got my wee little pot because, amazingly, the spout _never dribbles_.)
But this was a blooming tea, and you want to know how pretty it was! So: it was very, very pretty. The dry leaves were wrapped in a heart-shaped lump. They unfurled into incredibly long tendrils of tea around a pink clover center. See for youself: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4497665430/Tue, 06 Apr 2010 13:19:17 -0400/teas/Good%20Fortune%20Bloom/8793-good-fortune-bloom?note=35324
Organic New World Mint from The Tea TableFirst Tea Table tea of April! I'm not actually sure what I think of it yet; it's definitely a good mint, but the black tea underneath was somewhat muted. Consider this a provisional rating!Tue, 06 Apr 2010 17:16:40 -0400/teas/Organic%20New%20World%20Mint/11400-organic-new-world-mint?note=35365
Green Yerba Mate from The Tea TableMy first yerba mate! And I like it!
The dry leaves smell very much like _something_, but I can't for the life of me figure out what. The brewed tea also has a very familiar yet unnamable scent. Argh! But perhaps I'll be able to remember for the next cup, after the caffeine in here kicks in, or the mateine, or whatever it is -- it _smells_ like caffeine, anyway. And also like something a bit burnt.
Oddly, it tastes very sweet! I was not expecting that, and it's somewhat odd to pick up the mug and smell cinder while sipping sugar. There is an ashy aftertaste, but not at all in a bad way. It's tasty!
I wonder how many infusions these leaves are good for?Wed, 07 Apr 2010 10:23:03 -0400/teas/Green%20Yerba%20Mate/11398-green-yerba-mate?note=35444
Bamboo Leaf Green Tea (Zhu Ye Qing) from Life In TeacupOh, it is too _hot_ out for more caffeine that this. Please please please let my building turn on the central air soon.
Today's photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4502757992/in/set-72157623664718933/Thu, 08 Apr 2010 10:28:15 -0400/teas/Bamboo%20Leaf%20Green%20Tea%20(Zhu%20Ye%20Qing)/9713-bamboo-leaf-green-tea-zhu-ye-qing?note=35573
Strawberry Kiwi Tea from The Tea TableTried this as an iced tea again. It's strong enough this time, but the flavor is...odd. You sip and it's strawberry immediately, but then that's gone and you're drinking water -- but when you're done, there's a lingering taste of kiwi. Alas, I think this one is not to be.Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:40:54 -0400/teas/Strawberry%20Kiwi%20Tea/9622-strawberry-kiwi-tea?note=35614
Marco Polo from Mariage FrèresHmm. This doesn't make the best of iced teas: the tea flavor and the berry flavor are both there, but they never quite mesh.
Disclaimer: My tin of Marco Polo is embarrassingly old, which is surely affecting the flavors it produces.Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:08:39 -0400/teas/Marco%20Polo/1330-marco-polo?note=36016
Christmas (Rois Mages) from Kusmi TeaOh, this was very tasty! (Thank you, Doulton!) The bag smelled alarmingly of pine, but the tea itself was a wonderfully balanced mix of spices that did, in fact, remind me of Christmas food and drink. (Usually when a tea says this it just means "we have cloves!", but this was a much more complicated blend.)Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:10:22 -0400/teas/Christmas%20(Rois%20Mages)/4142-christmas-rois-mages?note=36017
Florence from Harney & SonsI have been shamefully neglecting to log this, despite Doulton's kind swapping when I specifically wanted this one! I just seemed to keep drinking it at times when I would have had to give a really rushed tasting note that wasn't worthy of the tea. So, consider this a backlogging x 5!
I'm not usually a big fan of chocolate teas: I figure, if what you want is chocolate, make some cocoa! But the luscious descriptions of this kept drawing me in. First I tried it plain, and I thought: _Okay, it's not bad, but what's the big deal?_ Then I tried it with milk.
Om nom nom nom nom!
_Oh!_ So I get it, now.
With milk, there's a chocolate taste, yes, but there's also a thoroughly creamy hazelnut that blends in perfectly, and supporting both of those there's a strong black tea base to remind me that this isn't a cocoa experience. Cocoa is a comfort drink, a lazy drink, something to sip while doing something else. Tea is its own justification! Mmm, tea.Mon, 12 Apr 2010 10:13:27 -0400/teas/Florence/3515-florence?note=36018
Taiwan Wuyi Oolong year 2006 from Life In TeacupThe dry leaves on this were intimidatingly black and twisty! And indeed, it is a very roast-y tea. It doesn't have the sweet undertones of some other roasted oolongs that I've been trying lately, either, although there's a lot of tea going on underneath the smoke.
Here's a picture from the third steep, although the reflections off of the side of the teapot are keeping the twistiness of the tea from being clear:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4514585111/in/set-72157623664718933/
(That's my newest teacup in the photo as well, by the way. I had been feeling like I didn't have enough drinkware to support my telecommuting tea habit and also like I wanted something better sized to my wee Samovar teapot, but I didn't really have the budget for full-on-fancy teaware -- and then I was wandering around the outskirts of the farmers' market on Saturday and found someone selling a punchbowl and _eighteen_ nice little punch cups for, y'know, flea market prices. So, uh, now I have three new glass teacups and a fifteen-cup backup stack in my storage cupboard.)Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:31:51 -0400/teas/Taiwan%20Wuyi%20Oolong%20year%202006/10656-taiwan-wuyi-oolong-year-2006?note=36035
Florence from Harney & SonsOkay, here's one for ~lauren!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4516495198/in/set-72157623664718933/
This is decadence. This is a double-strength mug of Florence with three scoops of chocolate ice cream added.
Double-strength Florence is so dark the spoon almost stands up and incredibly bitter -- and I say that as someone who loves bittersweet chocolate! But double-strength Florence with three scoops of chocolate ice cream is creamy and smooth and delicious! I didn't cool the tea down before adding the ice cream, but letting it steep for so long and adding the ice cream cooled it down enough to let me start drinking right away, so I could enjoy the combination of hot tea and cold ice cream before it equalized.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
(Dinner? What dinner?)Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:16:19 -0400/teas/Florence/3515-florence?note=36084
Green Yerba Mate from The Tea TableThis has kind of a lot of caffeine/whatever in it, doesn't it? Doesn't it?Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:45:54 -0400/teas/Green%20Yerba%20Mate/11398-green-yerba-mate?note=36222
Sun's Up from The Tea TableOkay, it's kind of pointless to pretend that this isn't my new favorite iced tea when I just went out and bought a big bag of it, isn't it? I guess it doesn't matter how it tastes hot if I'm always making it iced!
Have some time-lapse photography!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/sets/72157623724833659/Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:46:33 -0400/teas/Sun's%20Up/10328-suns-up?note=36223
Cranberry, Raspberry and Elderflower from TwiningsI've done this to myself several times now: I get the Twinings "Fruit & Herbal Infusion Selection" box, use up all of the Blackcurrant, Ginseng & Vanilla sachets, and find myself left with five-sixths of a box of tea. Once I lucked onto a whole box of just the good stuff, but they're really hard to find!
Which is to say, this is a decent tea. A bit sharp, but for once (thank goodness!) not in a rosehippy hibiscussed way. I do like it! It's just, you know, not actually why I buy the box.Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:07:23 -0400/teas/Cranberry,%20Raspberry%20and%20Elderflower/4886-cranberry-raspberry-and-elderflower?note=36307
Four Seasons from SamovarI tried steeping this for longer this time, and it turned up a really bitter aftertaste. Sugar helped, but I really don't think that "good vehicle for milk and sugar" is what this tea is going for!Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:15:20 -0400/teas/Four%20Seasons/2150-four-seasons?note=36309
Champagne Mojito Green from 52teas...Huh. This tea _sounds_ so good, but there's some weird scent/aftertaste thing going on that's just not pleasant, like industrial floor cleaner or artificial sweetener. I tried this cooler and then almost-boiling, and the hotter cup was _better_, but still...odd. I will give it one more chance, and then it may be yuckyface time, I'm afraid.
(Still, though, mad thanks to Doulton for the sample! I always would have wondered, otherwise.)Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:40:02 -0400/teas/Champagne%20Mojito%20Green/1672-champagne-mojito-green?note=36370
Organic New World Mint from The Tea TableWhen I opened the pouch this morning, this tea smelled absolutely wonderful! Sadly, it just isn't as exciting when it's brewed up. I tried it with sugar and again with milk, and neither one made a big difference.Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:29:51 -0400/teas/Organic%20New%20World%20Mint/11400-organic-new-world-mint?note=36456
Wild Purple Chrysanthemum flower tea from JK Tea ShopI was one of the lucky requesters to get a sample of this tea from JK Tea Shop's offer -- I'd never had chrysanthemum tea before, but I was intrigued by the concept.
The scent of the dry leaves was...odd. Definitely floral, but not floral the way any other tea I've ever had has been. Heavier somehow. I put eight flowers and a small shake of loose petals into a pot, and steeping it was the same scent even stronger. The color was a pale virulent green which wouldn't be amiss at a mad scientists' cocktail party!
So I sipped cautiously, and it's amazing! It tastes _just_ like it smells, and while I still have no idea what that taste is, I can now tell that it's juicy and extraordinarily sweet. It's not cloying, but it's just this side of it -- I can't imagine putting more sweetener in! And it leaves behind a plainer, less confusing aftertaste that's just sweet and sweet and sweet. I had to go make a second cup right away after finishing the first! (Second cup came out just like the first; I'm not tasting any change at all for the second steeping.)
The flowers were a lot smaller and paler than I expected: I think I was picturing something like an American Black-Eyed Susan flower in a dark purple, but these were about half that size and nearly white. So I have a lot more left than I expected! This is a very generously-sized sample packet.
Flowers steeping in the pot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4523798781/in/set-72157623664718933/Thu, 15 Apr 2010 17:45:36 -0400/teas/Wild%20Purple%20Chrysanthemum%20flower%20tea/11241-wild-purple-chrysanthemum-flower-tea?note=36472
Green Japan Cherry from The Tea TableOh, this is nice! I was uncertain at first, because I ripped open the sample packet and it smelled _exactly_ like cough syrup, but apparently that's only in the dry leaves. The tea smells fruity and summery, and it tastes sort of in between actual cherries and really good cherry candy. And tea, of course -- there's a really good tea taste too, and it mixes in very nicely with the cherry flavor.
Now I'm wondering if I've got enough in the sample to make iced tea out of it! This would be a really great high summer tea, I think.Fri, 16 Apr 2010 10:44:46 -0400/teas/Green%20Japan%20Cherry/982-green-japan-cherry?note=36535
Lady Hannah's Whole Fruit from Metropolitan Tea CompanyWhile this does make a decent iced tea, there's nothing very special about it -- and it does feel a little silly to be taking the long way around to fruit juice. I'll save my new supply of this for hot tea!Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:38:01 -0400/teas/Lady%20Hannah's%20Whole%20Fruit/8785-lady-hannahs-whole-fruit?note=36572
Wild Purple Chrysanthemum flower tea from JK Tea ShopI had this for dessert last night: three flowers in a small -punch- teacup, continual topping up of the water. This was a bit weaker and the tea itself didn't turn as bright green, but it was still very tasty -- I think I like it a little better a bit weak, actually. The flowers started out floating on top of the tea but eventually sank to the bottom of the cup (and were very pretty to look at as I sipped). Interestingly, given the lesser coloration of the tea, when I washed out the cup this morning the flower petals had streaks of green staining them!
Reading up on chrysanthemum teas, I hear that they _aren't_ generally soporifics; apparently it's just coincidence that I conked right out after finishing my last cup of this last night! I guess it was just plain old soothing.Sat, 17 Apr 2010 13:40:14 -0400/teas/Wild%20Purple%20Chrysanthemum%20flower%20tea/11241-wild-purple-chrysanthemum-flower-tea?note=36667
Jasmine with Flowers from The Tea TableEh. Unimpressed so far.Sat, 17 Apr 2010 18:19:01 -0400/teas/Jasmine%20with%20Flowers/11399-jasmine-with-flowers?note=36694
Lemon Green from The Tea TableOkay, this one can definitely get bitter if it's left to steep too long. Not a good steep-in-the-mug tea! Although it's worth noting that even oversteeped it has a sweet tang which lingers longer than the bitter does after sipping.Sun, 18 Apr 2010 21:16:15 -0400/teas/Lemon%20Green/10326-lemon-green?note=36829
Taiwan Sweet Summer Oolong from Life In TeacupMon, 19 Apr 2010 10:21:29 -0400/teas/Taiwan%20Sweet%20Summer%20Oolong/9710-taiwan-sweet-summer-oolong?note=36878
Georgia Peach Rooibos from The Tea TableOoh! Surprisingly smooth -- I know rooibos is usually smooth, but this is smoother than that. Like picking up a nectarine when you were expecting a fuzzy peach: that smooth. And definitely peach, in a sort of sweet and gentle way. Really, just a lovely tea!Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:38:54 -0400/teas/Georgia%20Peach%20Rooibos/11744-georgia-peach-rooibos?note=36953
An Xi Tie Guan Yin traditional charcoal roast from Life In TeacupTue, 20 Apr 2010 10:11:41 -0400/teas/An%20Xi%20Tie%20Guan%20Yin%20traditional%20charcoal%20roast/9712-an-xi-tie-guan-yin-traditional-charcoal-roast?note=37012
Verveine (Lemon Verbena) from Harney & SonsInteresting! It started off harsh -- just what I'd expect from lemon verbena, which I generally find to be an extremely strong and spicy flavor -- but it sweetened and softened as it cooled. There were three of these sachets tucked into the box I just got from Harney & Sons, which is a nice little bonus. I'm not sure I'd want this as an after-dinner drink, but as an early-evening-and-dinner-will-be-late drink, I like it.Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:35:37 -0400/teas/Verveine%20(Lemon%20Verbena)/9577-verveine-lemon-verbena?note=37119
Cherry Blossom from Harney & SonsThis is bizarrely musty. I don't see or smell anything wrong with the leaves so I doubt it's _literally_ musty, but the taste/texture is extremely off-putting. I think I may dump this cup out and try again with hotter water.Wed, 21 Apr 2010 09:22:19 -0400/teas/Cherry%20Blossom/6198-cherry-blossom?note=37168
Cherry Blossom from Harney & SonsAh, okay, that's much better. There's still an almost chalky texture, but it seems more deliberate this way. I'm not thrilled with this, but it's a reasonable cup of tea.Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:46:31 -0400/teas/Cherry%20Blossom/6198-cherry-blossom?note=37179
Dong Ding Oolong traditional medium roast from Life In TeacupAh! A cup of _real_ tea!Wed, 21 Apr 2010 12:20:09 -0400/teas/Dong%20Ding%20Oolong%20traditional%20medium%20roast/11260-dong-ding-oolong-traditional-medium-roast?note=37193
Florence from Harney & SonsWed, 21 Apr 2010 17:18:45 -0400/teas/Florence/3515-florence?note=37233
Tie Guan Yin Grade II Modern Green Style from Life In TeacupThu, 22 Apr 2010 10:35:01 -0400/teas/Tie%20Guan%20Yin%20Grade%20II%20Modern%20Green%20Style/10562-tie-guan-yin-grade-ii-modern-green-style?note=37308
Bai Ya Qi Lan Oolong from Life In TeacupOoh, I am giving this tea nothing like proper attention but it is _very_ sweet and lovely!Thu, 22 Apr 2010 16:03:44 -0400/teas/Bai%20Ya%20Qi%20Lan%20Oolong/9153-bai-ya-qi-lan-oolong?note=37354
Georgia Sunshine from TeaSourceThis makes a fantastic iced tea -- it really brings the peach out strongly enough to match the black tea. I wouldn't call it an everyday iced tea because it keeps catching my attention as I drink it; I can't pour a glass and go do something else!Fri, 23 Apr 2010 10:46:48 -0400/teas/Georgia%20Sunshine/8838-georgia-sunshine?note=37424
Tie Guan Yin from The Jade TeapotSat, 24 Apr 2010 15:23:06 -0400/teas/Tie%20Guan%20Yin/10866-tie-guan-yin?note=37564
Tie Guan Yin from The Jade TeapotMon, 26 Apr 2010 10:08:34 -0400/teas/Tie%20Guan%20Yin/10866-tie-guan-yin?note=37766
Wild Purple Chrysanthemum flower tea from JK Tea ShopSix flowers and a partially-steeped tie guan yin leaf in a mug. I'm on the second steep now, and I can already feel the flowers putting me to sleep like Dorothy in the poppy fields. I fear that if I left off logging this until I finished the second mug my tasting note would look more like this:
_Six flowersssszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz**snore**zzzzzzz_
So tasty, though!Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:01:21 -0400/teas/Wild%20Purple%20Chrysanthemum%20flower%20tea/11241-wild-purple-chrysanthemum-flower-tea?note=37882
Pu Erh (EC05) from Nothing But TeaMy first pu-erh, courtesy of a fantastic sampler sent to me by Angrboda!
...Okay, I totally see what everyone is talking about with the smell. There is definitely a delicate odor of cow barn here. (When people talked about "barnyard", I was imagining something like the hay and leather scent of a riding stable, but no: this, my friends, is _cows_.) Weirdly, though, it tastes like it smells and it tastes good; I don't know what to make of this! I am, so far, confused by pu-erh tea.
I did the first few steeps at near-boiling, under thirty seconds, and then had a few with cooler water and longer times. The tea didn't get noticeably bitter, but the first few steeps were juicier, I think. The color was an utterly gorgeous red-gold!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4561061811/in/set-72157623664718933/
So: I am intrigued enough to come back for more. We shall see!Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:42:23 -0400/teas/Pu%20Erh%20(EC05)/8974-pu-erh-ec05?note=38089
Pu Erh Exotic (EP07) from Nothing But TeaHmm. I don't think that I like this pu-erh as much as yesterday's plain one. The dried leaves smelled _exactly_ like the citrus meringue cookies I've been snacking on this week, so I had high hopes! But the citrus flavor overwhelmed all of the tea flavor without giving anything in replacement except a lingering sourness.
(Still, thank you, Angrboda, for the sample! I would have thought that this one would be _more_ to my liking, so you have saved me from this mistake!)Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:32:07 -0400/teas/Pu%20Erh%20Exotic%20(EP07)/8975-pu-erh-exotic-ep07?note=38173
Sun's Up from The Tea TableOkay, how is it that this iced tea is sweeter _without_ sugar?Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:38:38 -0400/teas/Sun's%20Up/10328-suns-up?note=38198
Vanilla Berry Truffle from Art of TeaVery sweet, even without honey! It seems to be a theme today.Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:08:34 -0400/teas/Vanilla%20Berry%20Truffle/2886-vanilla-berry-truffle?note=38206
Wild Purple Chrysanthemum flower tea from JK Tea ShopThu, 29 Apr 2010 23:02:10 -0400/teas/Wild%20Purple%20Chrysanthemum%20flower%20tea/11241-wild-purple-chrysanthemum-flower-tea?note=38233
Green Yerba Mate from The Tea TableCold-brewed for iced tea: two parts of this to one part Georgia Sunshine (http://steepster.com/teas/teasource/8838-georgia-sunshine). It tastes a lot like the straight-up Georgia Sunshine, very peach-y, but with more of a grassiness thrown in. There's a bit of a bitter aftertaste, though.Sat, 01 May 2010 14:13:22 -0400/teas/Green%20Yerba%20Mate/11398-green-yerba-mate?note=38365
Georgia Sunshine from TeaSourceFinished this off as iced tea, mixed with Green Yerba Mate:
http://steepster.com/teas/the-tea-table/11398-green-yerba-mate?post=38365Sat, 01 May 2010 14:15:37 -0400/teas/Georgia%20Sunshine/8838-georgia-sunshine?note=38366
Green Pu Erh Toucha (EC23) from Nothing But TeaMy third pu-erh from Angrboda! This one is different in two ways: it's a green tea in type and it's a toucha in shape.
The toucha part was really fun, actually, watching it slowly unravel. (Sadly, I didn't get any pictures.) And it takes the guesswork out of how much tea to add!
Weirdly, this green pu-erh tasted much more like black tea than the regular pu-erh did! It was a nice sort of bracing black tea, like an Assam, maybe. Then I think I oversteeped it and it became dangerously bitter until I added a lump of sugar.
Enjoyable! I think I still like that very first pu-erh best so far, though....Tue, 04 May 2010 17:27:11 -0400/teas/Green%20Pu%20Erh%20Toucha%20(EC23)/8971-green-pu-erh-toucha-ec23?note=38666
2009 Wuyi Medium-Roasted Da Hong Pao Rock Tea from JK Tea ShopTue, 04 May 2010 17:34:25 -0400/teas/2009%20Wuyi%20Medium-Roasted%20Da%20Hong%20Pao%20Rock%20Tea/11331-2009-wuyi-medium-roasted-da-hong-pao-rock-tea?note=38667
2009 Wuyi Medium-Roasted Da Hong Pao Rock Tea from JK Tea ShopMy second sample from JK Tea Shop!
This one smells fabulous, all toasty and rich, but I have yet to make the taste live up to that. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice tea, but it smells like it could be _so_ much better! The first time I definitely used too little leaf -- I was expecting it to unroll the way ball oolong does, but the twisty leaves here didn't expand as dramatically. (They're lovely, though! Again, sorry for the lack of photos this time.) For my second tasting I used a lot more and got a much bolder taste, but still not quite what I was expecting from the scent. Next time I think I'll try a longer steeping time. Fortunately this "sampler" is quite generous and I have a lot of tea to experiment with!Tue, 04 May 2010 17:34:29 -0400/teas/2009%20Wuyi%20Medium-Roasted%20Da%20Hong%20Pao%20Rock%20Tea/11331-2009-wuyi-medium-roasted-da-hong-pao-rock-tea?note=38668
Pomegranate Oolong Iced from Harney & SonsHarney & Sons, you are letting me down! I had such high hopes of this tea, but so far I have only mediocre results.
The first time I tried brewing this, I used their directions (brew in hot water, remove tea, add cold water) and got a cloudy, weak tea with very little taste either of tea or pomegranate. The second time I cold-brewed it and got a much better tea that had an odd fermented-ish aftertaste that was mostly covered by adding sugar. Normally I go through a jug of iced tea in a day or two, but this one sat through several days of me taking a small glass, going "huh", and taking another glass of something else.Tue, 04 May 2010 17:40:21 -0400/teas/Pomegranate%20Oolong%20Iced/9614-pomegranate-oolong-iced?note=38670
Jasmine with Flowers from The Tea TableTue, 04 May 2010 20:13:23 -0400/teas/Jasmine%20with%20Flowers/11399-jasmine-with-flowers?note=38685
Jasmine with Flowers from The Tea TableTue, 04 May 2010 20:13:23 -0400/teas/Jasmine%20with%20Flowers/11399-jasmine-with-flowers?note=38686
Jasmine with Flowers from The Tea TableGah, trying to put in a tasting note via my phone is almost impossible. Plz to be having an Android app soon, yes?
Anyway: I like this tea a lot more mugbrewed. It gets bitter, but in a really juicy and pleasing way. Not at all a morning tea, but very nice at the end of the afternoon.Tue, 04 May 2010 22:55:41 -0400/teas/Jasmine%20with%20Flowers/11399-jasmine-with-flowers?note=38702
Puerh Special Grade from TeaSourceWed, 05 May 2010 22:10:23 -0400/teas/Puerh%20Special%20Grade/10317-puerh-special-grade?note=38856
Moroccan Mint from The Tea TableThu, 06 May 2010 13:37:51 -0400/teas/Moroccan%20Mint/991-moroccan-mint?note=38909
Four Seasons from SamovarI mug-brewed two bits of this with a few wild purple chrysanthemum flowers, and it turned out very nice. The heaviness of this tea brought the chrysanthemums down to a more afternoon-tea level, I think.
However, here's the crazy part: when I finished my mug, I took a look at the unfurled leaves, and then I went and got my camera and some fresh tea for a comparison shot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4585160941/in/set-72157623664718933/
How does that _fit_?!Thu, 06 May 2010 22:30:49 -0400/teas/Four%20Seasons/2150-four-seasons?note=38959
Wild Purple Chrysanthemum flower tea from JK Tea ShopThu, 06 May 2010 22:36:25 -0400/teas/Wild%20Purple%20Chrysanthemum%20flower%20tea/11241-wild-purple-chrysanthemum-flower-tea?note=38962
Bai Ya Qi Lan Oolong from Life In TeacupYes, I was right: very light and lovely! I can see why Gingko compared it to a green style Tie Guan Yin -- it's got that same flowery sweetness to it. This one seems a bit earthier, but definitely in the same family. It only lasted through a few steeps, but it was really great while it lasted!Fri, 07 May 2010 16:37:22 -0400/teas/Bai%20Ya%20Qi%20Lan%20Oolong/9153-bai-ya-qi-lan-oolong?note=39036
Mad Hatter's Tea from Herbal InfusionsHuh. This tastes like I stirred in a _big_ spoonful of honey! It's a very herbal-tea taste; I wouldn't have said it had any tea-tea in it at all. It's a very nice herbal tea, though, fruity without being tart, with the occasional tantalizing peppery note. I think I want more!Fri, 07 May 2010 19:11:21 -0400/teas/Mad%20Hatter's%20Tea/11782-mad-hatters-tea?note=39045
Yongchun Fo Shou (Bergamot) Oolong from Life In Teacup...I get _no_ bergamot here, not to smell and not to taste. Nothing citrus. Nothing but a generic sort of green-tea taste. Well, and some bitterness when I tried steeping it longer in case that brought out more flavor.Sun, 09 May 2010 16:25:16 -0400/teas/Yongchun%20Fo%20Shou%20(Bergamot)%20Oolong/10001-yongchun-fo-shou-bergamot-oolong?note=39185
1001 Nights from TeaFrogIt's nice, but it's nothing particularly special.Mon, 10 May 2010 15:55:04 -0400/teas/1001%20Nights/6550-1001-nights?note=39285
Green Japan Cherry from The Tea TableOh, this _is_ a great iced tea! Just the right delicacy of the cherry flavor.Mon, 10 May 2010 15:56:52 -0400/teas/Green%20Japan%20Cherry/982-green-japan-cherry?note=39286
Fine Ti Kuan Yin Oolong Tea from The Tea TableMon, 10 May 2010 15:57:38 -0400/teas/Fine%20Ti%20Kuan%20Yin%20Oolong%20Tea/9683-fine-ti-kuan-yin-oolong-tea?note=39287
An Xi Tie Guan Yin traditional charcoal roast from Life In TeacupTue, 11 May 2010 15:52:42 -0400/teas/An%20Xi%20Tie%20Guan%20Yin%20traditional%20charcoal%20roast/9712-an-xi-tie-guan-yin-traditional-charcoal-roast?note=39412
Baroness Grey from The Tea TableI'm not entirely sure what to think of this yet. The lime is rather...puckery, and I think I need to steep it a little lighter to get the balance right.Tue, 11 May 2010 15:54:50 -0400/teas/Baroness%20Grey/12245-baroness-grey?note=39414
Creme Caramel Rooibos from DAVIDsTEAWed, 12 May 2010 01:34:09 -0400/teas/Creme%20Caramel%20Rooibos/15692-creme-caramel-rooibos?note=39468
Puerh Special Grade from TeaSourceOkay, I think I can officially say now that I like pu-erh tea! It's all...heavy and tasty and has that interesting flavor-kick at the end. Mmm.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4601944730/in/set-72157623664718933/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4601335215/in/set-72157623664718933/
Thank you, Angrboda!Wed, 12 May 2010 13:42:57 -0400/teas/Puerh%20Special%20Grade/10317-puerh-special-grade?note=39528
Organic Pearl River from The Tea TableThu, 13 May 2010 16:38:44 -0400/teas/Organic%20Pearl%20River/993-organic-pearl-river?note=39715
Root Beer Float from The NecessiTeasThis tea was really, really tasty, so I really, really hope it wasn't what gave me such an awful stomachache last night....Fri, 14 May 2010 09:54:45 -0400/teas/Root%20Beer%20Float/7837-root-beer-float?note=39788
Get Relief - No. 9 (Wellness Collection) from The Republic of TeaFri, 14 May 2010 09:57:21 -0400/teas/Get%20Relief%20-%20No.%209%20(Wellness%20Collection)/5345-get-relief-no-9-wellness-collection?note=39791
Lemon Green from The Tea TableMmm. Apparently, on the right sort of day this is very soothing mug-steeped.Fri, 14 May 2010 15:16:52 -0400/teas/Lemon%20Green/10326-lemon-green?note=39833
Khumbu Green from The Tea TableOkay, wow! This is a tea meant to be cold-brewed (which is how I like my iced tea) so when this arrived for my tea-of-the-month subscription I was very excited to try it. Sadly, the weather lately has been rainy and cold and entirely off-putting to the whole concept of iced tea, so it took me a while to finish up my previous carafe of iced tea so that I had something to brew this in, and then I wound up leaving this tea brewing in the fridge for something like three or four days!
Given how long it was brewing, I was pretty worried when I pulled it out: it looked barely darker than plain water, and I thought that maybe I hadn't used enough leaves (I put in my standard three heaping spoons for two liters). But I poured myself a glass anyway, and even before I tasted it I could smell the tea as I lifted the glass. It smelled earthy and green and not at all weak, so I closed my eyes and had a sip -- and wow! That's some tea! The adjectives that come to mind are "hearty" and "toasted" and "solid", which clash oddly with visual ones such as "watery".
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4609134579/in/set-72157623664718933/
Definitely a new standard in iced tea for me.Sat, 15 May 2010 15:10:35 -0400/teas/Khumbu%20Green/12246-khumbu-green?note=39926
Wild Purple Chrysanthemum flower tea from JK Tea ShopTried this with a tiny bit of honey. It tastes like _candy_. (One of the chewy sorts, kind of like taffy or those sugar-water-filled wax straws.) My teeth are aching in sympathy.Sat, 15 May 2010 20:55:20 -0400/teas/Wild%20Purple%20Chrysanthemum%20flower%20tea/11241-wild-purple-chrysanthemum-flower-tea?note=39969
Khumbu Green from The Tea TableThis is also a very nice hot tea. It has the same toasted flavor to it without being quite as earthy, and intriguingly adding a small bit of honey makes it taste almost _milky_ with the sudden sweetness.
I'm also amused that this tea is so much darker when brewed hot:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4616069126/in/set-72157623664718933/Mon, 17 May 2010 12:55:22 -0400/teas/Khumbu%20Green/12246-khumbu-green?note=40150
Get Relief - No. 9 (Wellness Collection) from The Republic of TeaMon, 17 May 2010 23:14:00 -0400/teas/Get%20Relief%20-%20No.%209%20(Wellness%20Collection)/5345-get-relief-no-9-wellness-collection?note=40227
Pu Erh (EC05) from Nothing But TeaTue, 18 May 2010 13:52:09 -0400/teas/Pu%20Erh%20(EC05)/8974-pu-erh-ec05?note=40295
Green Yerba Mate from The Tea TableWed, 19 May 2010 13:12:19 -0400/teas/Green%20Yerba%20Mate/11398-green-yerba-mate?note=40414
Pu-erh Rose tea from The Tea FarmI just got the rose tea "sampler" from Tea Farm, and seriously, this is a _lot_ of tea! I have no idea how I'm going to store it; right now it's still in bags in the shipping box. They're the clear-sided bags which show off how absolutely lovely the tea is (do take a closer look at the official tea photo here!), but they are rather inconvenient for someone like me who has open tea shelves instead of a tea cupboard.
Anyway, the tea! I tried it in cooler water first, but I think I like it better with water that's just down a bit from boiling to bring out a little more bitterness. This is a very smooth tea, hardly bitter at all, but I'm not convinced that the pu-erh and the rose are mingling as well as they could: both flavors are lovely, but they seem to be happening simultaneously instead of together, if you follow me. Also, the aftertaste lingers as slightly sour, which I don't much like. I think I need to play around with the steeping parameters on this some more.Wed, 19 May 2010 21:09:26 -0400/teas/Pu-erh%20Rose%20tea/12469-pu-erh-rose-tea?note=40477
Wild Purple Chrysanthemum flower tea from JK Tea ShopThu, 20 May 2010 00:53:07 -0400/teas/Wild%20Purple%20Chrysanthemum%20flower%20tea/11241-wild-purple-chrysanthemum-flower-tea?note=40507
Baroness Grey from The Tea TableOh, very nice! This makes a fantastic iced tea with a whole lot of lime going on. (And it's a gorgeous gold color, too.)Thu, 20 May 2010 14:37:50 -0400/teas/Baroness%20Grey/12245-baroness-grey?note=40557
Oolong Rose tea from The Tea FarmHmm. I'm getting the same lingering sourness from this that I did from the Pu-Erh Rose, so I'm starting to wonder if it isn't the rose itself. That would be a shame! Roses aren't supposed to be sour!
I don't dislike this, but I'm not wild about it. A longer steep seems to bring out some nice bitter yet still light summer flower flavor from the tea to go with the rose, and I feel like in general the tea and the rose are better integrated in this one.
I might try mixing it with something sweet and see what that does....
(After all, I have plenty left to play with! http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4624968493/in/set-72157623718023831/ )Thu, 20 May 2010 18:43:50 -0400/teas/Oolong%20Rose%20tea/12471-oolong-rose-tea?note=40581
Oolong Rose tea from The Tea Farm_Recipe for a tasty working-late tea_
Start with: one mug
Add: a bit of Tea Farm Oolong Rose (http://steepster.com/teas/the-tea-farm/12471-oolong-rose-tea)
Add: a bit more of Art of Tea Velvet Tea (http://steepster.com/teas/art-of-tea/2887-velvet-tea)
Toss in: three flowers of JK Tea Shop Wild Purple Chrysanthemum (http://steepster.com/teas/jk-tea-shop/11241-wild-purple-chrysanthemum-flower-tea)
Fill with: boiling water
Steep: until the water cools enough to drink and most of the tea is at the bottom of the mug
Sip, occasionally straining rooibos from your teeth, until the chocolate/rose/chrysanthemum/rooibos savory combination puts you at your ease despite the spreadsheets still open.Thu, 20 May 2010 23:25:53 -0400/teas/Oolong%20Rose%20tea/12471-oolong-rose-tea?note=40609
Wild Purple Chrysanthemum flower tea from JK Tea Shop_Recipe for a tasty working-late tea_
Start with: one mug
Add: a bit of Tea Farm Oolong Rose (http://steepster.com/teas/the-tea-farm/12471-oolong-rose-tea)
Add: a bit more of Art of Tea Velvet Tea (http://steepster.com/teas/art-of-tea/2887-velvet-tea)
Toss in: three flowers of JK Tea Shop Wild Purple Chrysanthemum (http://steepster.com/teas/jk-tea-shop/11241-wild-purple-chrysanthemum-flower-tea)
Fill with: boiling water
Steep: until the water cools enough to drink and most of the tea is at the bottom of the mug
Sip, occasionally straining rooibos from your teeth, until the chocolate/rose/chrysanthemum/rooibos savory combination puts you at your ease despite the spreadsheets still open.Thu, 20 May 2010 23:31:38 -0400/teas/Wild%20Purple%20Chrysanthemum%20flower%20tea/11241-wild-purple-chrysanthemum-flower-tea?note=40610
Velvet Tea from Art of Tea_Recipe for a tasty working-late tea_
Start with: one mug
Add: a bit of Tea Farm Oolong Rose (http://steepster.com/teas/the-tea-farm/12471-oolong-rose-tea)
Add: a bit more of Art of Tea Velvet Tea (http://steepster.com/teas/art-of-tea/2887-velvet-tea)
Toss in: three flowers of JK Tea Shop Wild Purple Chrysanthemum (http://steepster.com/teas/jk-tea-shop/11241-wild-purple-chrysanthemum-flower-tea)
Fill with: boiling water
Steep: until the water cools enough to drink and most of the tea is at the bottom of the mug
Sip, occasionally straining rooibos from your teeth, until the chocolate/rose/chrysanthemum/rooibos savory combination puts you at your ease despite the spreadsheets still open.Thu, 20 May 2010 23:31:44 -0400/teas/Velvet%20Tea/2887-velvet-tea?note=40611
An Xi Tie Guan Yin traditional charcoal roast from Life In TeacupFri, 21 May 2010 12:23:03 -0400/teas/An%20Xi%20Tie%20Guan%20Yin%20traditional%20charcoal%20roast/9712-an-xi-tie-guan-yin-traditional-charcoal-roast?note=40652
Organic 1000mesh Matcha from JK Tea ShopMy first matcha! I suspect I probably did it all wrong, but I really enjoyed it anyway.
I put a spoonful of this into a bowl, poured it about half full with near-boiling water, and tried to whisk it with a metal cooking whisk. This came out bitter, bitter, _bitter_, so I added more water and stirred in a half-spoonful of honey, then kept stirring with the spoon because that seemed to be working reasonably well. At these terrifically _precise_ measurements, it tasted great! I know, I know, some of you type-A tea drinkers out there are trying to stop your heads from exploding right now, aren't you.
I wound up drinking a lot of this with the spoon because I needed to keep stirring, so I just treated it like soup for the first half of the bowl, then picked it up and drank the rest (I really need to find some of those square bowls with the great-for-drinking corners on them like my girlfriend's roommate has). It was a really thick, interesting texture, and there were a few very small lumps that added to the texture more than anything else.
In conclusion, yay!Sat, 22 May 2010 13:54:50 -0400/teas/Organic%201000mesh%20Matcha/11253-organic-1000mesh-matcha?note=40762
Tazo Chai from TazoHello out there! I'm going to be doing a bit of backlogging to catch up with my trip last week. (As much as I can, anyway: there was one tea that I looked at and thought, "No need to write that down! Surely I couldn't forget a tea named ____ from the ____ company!" ...Yeah. So, does anyone know of a maté tea in a teabag blended with several flavors including probably coconut from a well-known company?)
This was one of the teas available in the office, so I had it plain with hot water. It was tasty and sweet, but the problem is that I apparently use this exact blend of spices when I make tea eggs, so I kept expecting to the tea to taste like hard-boiled eggs. Of course, it _doesn't_ taste like hard-boiled eggs, nor should it, but the cognitive dissonance put me off what would otherwise be a rather pleasant cup of well-it's-midafternoon-and-I-need-some-tea-at-the-office tea. It didn't get too bitter when oversteeped, although it did get almost too strong.Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:32:25 -0400/teas/Tazo%20Chai/785-tazo-chai?note=41834
Ceylon Black with Orange from DeKalb County Farmer's MarketOne of my new purchases from the trip -- Your DeKalb Farmer's Market (which is neither a farmer's market nor mine but which is in DeKalb, so I guess it's okay) carries bulk Ceylon Black tea in a variety of flavorings. I picked up Orange and Peach.
During the trip I mug-brewed this one, and this was (unsurprisingly) deeply bitter but (surprisingly) deeply flavorful as well: I would have expected the long steep to cause the tea to override the orange, but it didn't. In fact, on a more "proper" two minute steep this morning, the orange didn't really come out enough until I steeped it a second time and added some honey. This is leading me to believe that it may be an excellent iced tea, so I shall have to experiment!Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:21:01 -0400/teas/Ceylon%20Black%20with%20Orange/12850-ceylon-black-with-orange?note=41944
Crime of Passion from The Tea TableThe first of June's teas! (Seriously, how is it June already?)
This is, indeed, very fruity! It blended very nicely with the tea itself, and was neither sour nor cloyingly sweet, both of which were fears of mine when I read the ingredients list. When I opened the pouch of tea and took a whiff it smelled _very_ strong, but these parameters actually brewed up a fairly mild tea.Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:46:48 -0400/teas/Crime%20of%20Passion/12855-crime-of-passion?note=42013
Baroness Grey from The Tea TableAlas, this _doesn't_ make such a great iced tea mixed with Khumbu Green. I had hoped that the sharpness of this one would mix with the earthiness of that one, but instead they fought it out unhappily. Either one alone is much better than this mix....Thu, 03 Jun 2010 12:49:29 -0400/teas/Baroness%20Grey/12245-baroness-grey?note=42014
Bingo Blueberry from The Tea TableA perfectly nice, perfectly forgettable cup of blueberry tea.
I think I will have to try this again and pay more attention.Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:14:37 -0400/teas/Bingo%20Blueberry/1062-bingo-blueberry?note=42056
Organic 1000mesh Matcha from JK Tea ShopNotes to self: half a spoonful is just a bit too little for my blue mug; 1:1 matcha:honey ratio is decadent and excellent.Fri, 04 Jun 2010 11:21:10 -0400/teas/Organic%201000mesh%20Matcha/11253-organic-1000mesh-matcha?note=42111
Bamboo Leaf Green Tea (Zhu Ye Qing) from Life In TeacupOh so pretty!
I would post a picture, but my new glass mug has my company logo on the side and I'd rather not post that on the 'net, so you'll just have to take my word for it!Fri, 04 Jun 2010 11:54:15 -0400/teas/Bamboo%20Leaf%20Green%20Tea%20(Zhu%20Ye%20Qing)/9713-bamboo-leaf-green-tea-zhu-ye-qing?note=42114
Yongchun Fo Shou (Bergamot) Oolong from Life In TeacupHmm, I'll bump this up a little for being a decent mug-brewed tea -- I dropped six leaves into a mug and poured hot water over it, and the result was extremely smooth and nicely sweet -- but there is _still_ no bergamot to be tasted in it. Maybe I have a batch that missed the flavoring? Although given that steeping for two minutes brings out bitterness and leaving the leaves in the mug for a few hours makes the tea smooth and sweet, there must be something going on in there....Mon, 07 Jun 2010 11:13:14 -0400/teas/Yongchun%20Fo%20Shou%20(Bergamot)%20Oolong/10001-yongchun-fo-shou-bergamot-oolong?note=42411
Zombie Blood Orange from ThinkGeekD&D&Tea, day 1, roll 1: 1
Yawning, Cait staggered across the room and slung herself onto a barstool. The innkeeper rolled her eyes and wordlessly pushed a steaming hot mug of pu-erh into Cait's hands.
"Thanks," Cait mumbled, inhaling gratefully.
"Someone over there's been looking for you," the innkeeper said. She waved toward the back of the room and Cait saw a robed figure turn and stare in her direction.
"Thanks," Cait said again, and slid off the barstool a little more gracefully than she'd arrived. "Mind if I join you?" she asked the robed figure.
"I've been hoping you would," the wizard -- it had to be a wizard -- said. "My name is Rabs. I'm looking for the winner of last week's tournament."
Cait puffed up. "Why, that was me! News must travel fast." She took the other chair at the table and did her best to look heroic.
Rabs sighed. "Actually, I meant to be here to see the finale -- there were gremlins in the -- look, don't get me started."
"Sorry--"
"No, never mind. Here we are now. So! What I need is an adventurer."
This was it! This was the big break that everyone talked about! Sitting here in this inn all week waiting for mysterious quests had finally paid off! "Well!" Cait said, still puffed up. "You've found one!"
The hood of Rabs' cloak tipped forward. "A _hardcore_ adventurer?" she asked.
Cait clasped one hand around her steaming-teapot talisman and patted her trusty club with the other. "I'm ready for anything!"
"Are you ready for this?" Rabs asked, and spread her hands apart. Between them swirled a vision of a deceptively simple chest whose lid rose to reveal bright treasures inside.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4687952031/in/set-72157624121434691/
Cait gasped. Rabs smiled and flicked her fingers again. The chest tipped to the side and its wealth poured out in shining jewel tones.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4688592104/in/set-72157624121434691/
"What must I do?" cried Cait.
Rabs set her hands palm-down on the table. When she lifted them away, a scroll and quill rested there. "I desire a set of magical scrolls," she said. "I can send you to the magic, but you must inscribe them and return each one to me." Carefully, Cait lifted the scroll and quill and tucked them into her bag. "When this scroll is ready, snap the quill and you will return here. Now go!" she cried, and Cait realized that her chair was actually sitting in a circle of matcha--
...and, now, was sitting in the middle of the woods. "Time's a-wasting, I suppose," Cait said. "Now which way do I go from--"
This was, of course, when the zombies attacked.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4688603608/in/set-72157624121434691/
They lurched out of the brush, a bare armslength away, and Cait had her opportunity for her first heroic act as a questing adventurer, which turned out to be shrieking at the top of her lungs, tangling one foot in the inn chair, and falling on top of the zombies. The zombies toppled onto her, painfully heavy, and Cait shrieked again, lashing out with her fists until she could get her hands free to pull out her traveling mug, unscrew the top, and douse the monsters with holy water. The zombies screeched and steamed -- it was _hot_ holy water -- and Cait swung her club in two short, deadly arcs.
"I," Cait said, "am _so glad_ to be working alone instead of in a party of people who would have witnessed that." Then she turned and walked into the woods in the direction from which the zombies had lurched--
...only to find her feet sliding out from under her as she tumbled down the hillside and thumped against a rotting stump--
...from which swarmed hundreds of angry bees.
"AAAAAAARGH!" screamed Cait, and started running. To the left, there was a smell of something pungent, and she ran straight into a cloud of the sourest fumes she'd ever known. Fortunately, the bees didn't. In the center of a hollow, a cauldron bubbled softly.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4688609652/in/set-72157624121434691/
Feeling a tingling from her shoulder bag, Cait drew out the scroll and quill (thankfully unbroken). "This is the magic I was sent for?" she said. "What do I do?"
The cauldron bubbled. Cait bit her lip, then held out a hand to try detecting poison. The spell was slow to answer and seemed a bit uncertain, but there didn't seem to be any other options. Shrugging, Cait scooped up a bit of the contents into her mug and sipped.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4688622972/in/set-72157624121434691/
"Yeoooow!" she said, then grabbed her own tongue and muttered, "C're 'ight 'oundth." Just like a novice cleric in her first tea ceremony. _So_ heroic. Sighing, she blew across the top and took a more cautious sip. Tart, _very_ tart, but juicy enough underneath to work with. She nodded to herself and worked her careful way back to the tree stump with the bees. They had quieted, and Cait was able to nab a piece of honeycomb and dunk it into the tea. Yes, much better. The honey definitely brought out the apple undertones and gave the tea a better texture in the mouth. Pleased, she drained her cup and, as she tipped back the dregs, felt the magical runes explode into her mind. She scribbled them down across the scroll -- the jagged strokes of the orange, the soft curlicues of the apple, the dark swirl of warning with the strong hexes of honey around it -- and then paused, quill ready to snap, as something moved in the misty fumes.
"Detect Undead," Cait whispered nervously, and the fumes seemed to light up all around her with the tangy orange signatures that would now and forever characterize zombies, she knew. Eyes wide, she clenched her fist around the quill until it snapped and found herself standing beside Rabs' table back at the inn.
"Excellent!" cried Rabs. "Sit, sit, you look tired. I've pulled up another chair."Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:18:30 -0400/teas/Zombie%20Blood%20Orange/12009-zombie-blood-orange?note=42797
Pu-erh Rose tea from The Tea FarmThu, 10 Jun 2010 15:30:44 -0400/teas/Pu-erh%20Rose%20tea/12469-pu-erh-rose-tea?note=42808
Earl Grey Blue Flower (TE16) from Upton Tea ImportsD&D&Tea, day 1, roll 2: 7
Cait sat down in the proffered chair with a heavy thump. "Ow," she muttered. "You didn't say anything about there being undead guarding the magic for your scrolls."
The hood of Rabs' cloak tipped in a way reminiscent of a secretive wizard hiding an eyeroll. "Why did you think I needed an adventurer?" she asked, and pushed a new scroll and quill across the table to Cait.
The innkeeper came by with a mug of cider, set it down by the wizard's elbow, and gave Cait a sympathetic look. "Are they all so dangerous?" she asked. "I mean, this _is_ why I have these adventurers pay for the whole week up front, but this seems a little harsh."
Rabs snorted. "Here," she said, and held up her cupped hands for the innkeeper's inspection. "You pick the next one, then." The innkeeper poked dubiously through something that Cait couldn't see. "That one?"
"No, no," said the innkeeper. "How about there?"
"Hmm, the seventh facet," Rabs said. "Very well!"
Cait blinked as the air thickened around her. Then, with emphatic care, she stood up from the chair and drew her club. This one appeared to be a jungle filled with the heady fragrance of flowers in bloom.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4688402121/in/set-72157624121434691/
"This is lovely," Cait said, and braced herself.
Nothing attacked.
"Hmm," Cait said, and stopped to just breathe in the flowers for a few moments. Revitalized, she chose a direction and began picking her way through the tangled vines. A beautiful line of blue flowers ran past her feet like a stream, and she crouched down to admire them. Above her head, jaws snapped shut and something growled angrily.
Cait didn't shriek this time (any slight squeaking noise was surely your imagination). She whirled around and drove her club hard into the throat of the --
Well. She whirled around and struck, glancing the very tip of her club off of a heavy vine that writhed away. Beside her face, a pugnacious purple-mottled jaw dropped open again to reveal a row of vegetative yet extremely vicious teeth. Cait rolled to the side and struck at the vine again, this time barely bruising the thick greenery. However, it bought her time to reach into her bag, pull out a bag of salt, and dump it into the maw of the cleric-eating plant. With one last writhe, the plant wilted to the ground. Behind it, Cait could see that the stream of blue-flowering plants appeared to be pouring from another cauldron. Eagerly she approached this one and scooped up a mug. Then, remembering the previous tea, she pulled out a different bag and shook a small twist's worth of sugar into the mug.
Holding it up, she took a deep breath. Yes, the floral richness of the blue flowers was wafting from the steam of the tea as well. A cautious sip broke open a lovely sweetness and Cait smiled, sipping peacefully as the warmth of the tea washed through her. As it cooled, though, the sweetness began to turn cloying. Heaviness dragged at her limbs, and she shook it off and paced, returning to the tea only to find it cooler and sweeter than before.
As she turned again, a sharp scent broke through the air and Cait turned, about to welcome the change when she recognized the blood orange from the earlier tea, a last remnant perhaps of her spell to detect the undead as the carnivorous vine rose up again, swaying before her on its weakened stalk. The jaws seemed to part with foul laughter and then, even as Cait reached for her traveling mug of holy water, it turned and slithered away.
Grimly, Cait lifted her mug of tea and drank the cold liquid down. She pulled the scroll out of her bag and, lifting its quill, bordered it with arrows of urgency and sweetened it only with licks of flame through the middle. Then she stopped, looked down at the bubbling blue flowers, and threw rune-petals of joy and delight out from the middle to meet those ominous borders and give them meaning. With one last smile for the blossoms, she snapped the quill and reformed at the inn.
"That was nice," she said to Rabs and the innkeeper. "Thank you! But you know, you're going to have to do something about all of those chairs I keep losing."Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:35:01 -0400/teas/Earl%20Grey%20Blue%20Flower%20(TE16)/5714-earl-grey-blue-flower-te16?note=42832
TB05: Mincing Lane Breakfast Blend from Upton Tea ImportsD&D&Tea, day 1, roll 3: 13
"So," Rabs said, holding out a new scroll and quill for Cait to take, "ready for the last one for today? Then you'll probably need to rest up a bit."
"Sure!" Cait said gamely. "Bring it on!"
Rabs held cupped hands up to the innkeeper, who was still watching them with amusement. "Care to pick again, m'lady?"
She tapped her fingers together for luck and poked downward. "There!"
"Ah!" said Rabs, and Cait braced herself. "Shall we see if thirteen proves lucky?"
"I'm ready!" Cait said, but her words were drowned out by the clatter of a six-legged carriage stomping down the street. Another one rumbled behind it, and a faster two-legged machine raced between them and was away before Cait could blink. All around her, people swarmed in and out of tiny shops carrying tiny parcels; the smell of spices, shocking after the bright floral notes from the jungle, suddenly washed away as if they had never been. A scarf flew by in the rising wind, then a bonnet, then most of a penny dreadful, and the shoppers around Cait fled before the cold cutting air.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cait_tea/4689410824/in/set-72157624121434691/
The sky darkened -- no, the sky filled with a flock of birds, cawing in strange grating voices to each other. One swooped down at Cait, who dodged it. Three more followed, and Cait paid for a strike which knocked one from the air with a slice across her shoulder. The bird hit the cobblestones with a metallic crunch, and Cait stared as it burst apart and spilled wires and cogs into the street. More birds were wheeling about, and Cait raised her club and set her jaw.
"Over here, lassie!" someone yelled, and Cait sprinted for the open door. The inside was dark and warm, and as the door slammed shut behind her she could hear birds strike it with tinkling crashes. With a rasp, a lantern on a table flickered into light. "Now then," said her rescuer, "why were you standing out there like a fool?"
"I didn't know what they were," Cait said. "I still don't."
Her rescuer, a big woman with her shirtsleeves rolled up and three different hammers stuck through loops in her belt, didn't look impressed by this ignorance. "And what are you doing running around in robes? Are you some kind of cultist, then?" Cait clutched at her steaming-teapot taliman and drew breath to explain that she was a cleric, but the woman suddenly barked out a laugh. "Ah, one of those tea-worshippers! You lot are okay. Go on downstairs, then."
Cait followed her gesture left, seeing a dark doorway that might lead to steps, and turned back only to find the room empty again. She opened her mouth, closed it, and took the lantern. Through the doorway and down the stairs, down, down, and down. The walls sometimes seemed to vibrate softly with the hum of some machinery, hopefully something that was keeping them safe from those mechanical birds. Finally she reached a low, dark cellar that seemed to stretch out endlessly into the earth. Along the near wall were hearths with chimneys drawing upward, and in each hearth was a cauldron.
"All that steam has to come from something, doesn't it?" said a voice, and Cait jumped, seeing the same woman suddenly beside her again. Although, at a second glance, she might be carrying different hammers. "Here," she said, holding out a hand for Cait's mug and scooping liquid from the first cauldron into it. "I think you'll find this one suits."
"Thank you," Cait said, but the woman was already gone again. With a sigh, Cait bent her head over the mug and breathed deeply. This was pure essence of tea, wonderful to smell, and Cait was sure its steam could power any number of marvels. The first sip was thick without being heavy; it felt round and full on her tongue. Cait set the lantern down and wandered with her mug, letting the soft earthiness of the tea meld with the warmth and darkness of her surroundings and the arcane hum of the machinery. Each sip lingered, warm and comforting, and the last cooling drop was as good as the first had been.
When her mug was empty, Cait drew out the scroll and quill and let the runes flow: the crosshatched earth, the glowing embers, the soft curves for subtle sweetness like honey combined with the strong posts that could support so much. Then, peacefully, she snapped the quill.
"You look satisfied," Rabs said from her seat by the fire.
"I am," Cait said, and she made a bow to the wizard. "Thank you very much for this adventure."Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:25:30 -0400/teas/TB05:%20Mincing%20Lane%20Breakfast%20Blend/7691-tb05-mincing-lane-breakfast-blend?note=42841
Pomegranate Oolong Iced from Harney & SonsI got curious and tore open one of the packets to try brewing this hot, and I don't like it any better. The pomegranate which smells so lovely on the leaves has a very dry and artificial taste to it -- the last word I'd ever use to describe it would be "juicy", and probably the second-to-last would be "sweet". It's tragic, really!Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:29:24 -0400/teas/Pomegranate%20Oolong%20Iced/9614-pomegranate-oolong-iced?note=42911
Organic 1000mesh Matcha from JK Tea ShopRecipe of tasty tastiness:
1. Pour a glass of cold fizzy water.
2. Add a small handful of fresh raspberries.
3. Add a quarter of a spoonful of matcha.
4. Add a quarter of a spoonful of honey.
5. Stir/mash/muddle it all up.
6. Aaaaaaaaah, that's good.
p.s. Fear not, the adventures of Cait the Cleric will resume soon!Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:36:25 -0400/teas/Organic%201000mesh%20Matcha/11253-organic-1000mesh-matcha?note=43252
Khumbu Green from The Tea TableAh-hah, there's a good mix: this Khumbu Green with the Ceylon Black with Orange that I recently picked up from the DeKalb Farmer's Market makes an excellent iced tea. I think it helps that the Ceylon Black has a really strong _tea_ flavor as an iced tea, so the deep earthiness of the Khumbu doesn't just bowl it over. I used a 2:1 mix of Khumbu and Ceylon, and the orange flavoring on the Ceylon was very muted, a nice little hint behind the tea but not an overwhelming orange drink with some tea in it. (Also, the Ceylon cold-brews a nice golden, so this mix isn't as pale as the pure Khumbu was! And the mingled leaves were really really pretty -- I'll photograph them next time I make this.)Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:32:15 -0400/teas/Khumbu%20Green/12246-khumbu-green?note=43343
Ceylon Black with Orange from DeKalb County Farmer's MarketA great iced tea in a 1:2 part mix with Khumbu Green from The Tea Table:
http://steepster.com/Cait/posts/43343Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:37:23 -0400/teas/Ceylon%20Black%20with%20Orange/12850-ceylon-black-with-orange?note=43345